John Hall, pastor and preacher

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CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

BEQUEST

OF

STEWART HENRY BURNHAM
1943

Cornell University Library

BX9225.H17 H17 1901

John Hall, pastor and jpreacher a blogra

olin

3 1924 029 478 975

Cornell University
Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029478975

John Hall

Pastor and
Preacher

JOHN HALL

PASTOR
AND

PREACHER

'<^

/f/S SOAT
THOMAS C. HALL

o4)*«j

FLEMING H. REVBLL COMPANY

NEWYORK • CHrCAOO • TORONTO

Copyright, 1901, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

(November)

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TO MY MOTHER

whose eager love lightened

at every step

the life of him whom these pages

would fain portray,

and from whom not even death divides

this volume is affectionately dedicated

By Her Son.

Preface

IT has been a labor of filial love to trace the life
of one who left his mark for good upon
thousands of lives. The born preacher foregoes
a measure of literary fame as he speaks to the
immediate needs of men, not in the forms that
might make him acceptable to the chosen few,
but in the modes understood of the many. My
father was himself averse to printing his sermons.
He has left but few in such a form that they
could be given to the press, and those would, I
fear, misrepresent him to those who never heard
his voice or knew the charm that separates the
born preacher from the pulpit speaker or even
the platform orator. He gave his life for his
generation. He sought no reputation as either a
theologian or man of letters. Indeed he deliber-
ately turned away from work great gifts fitted
him to do, for that which he deemed more im-
portant; the calling of men to life eternal in
Christ Jesus our Lord. The purpose of these
pages is to prolong a little the savor of his mem-
7

8 PREFACE

ory; to interpret, however weakly, the sincerity
and singleness of aim that marlted the man, to a
generation that needs inspiration to simplicity;
to remind friends of what we all have lost, and
perhaps, to help some one seeking to live the
life of sacrifice and devotion how to make
that life more widely useful. The filial relation
forbids alike eulogium and critique. No powers
at the command of the author can do justice to
the straightforward, tender, upright manhood
that made my father a tower of strength to every
cause he made his own, and a sheltering rock to
many weaker ones battling with untoward cir-
cumstances. In him strength and gentleness
mingled in an indescribably attractive way. He
was personally unspoilt by success, and the last
tests of his character though they broke his heart,
left him without bitterness, humbly and simply
leaning on that Father's strength, whose way is
not our way, but whose love guarded His servant
unto the end. With no one did my father prob-
ably speak more intimately on many subjects
connected with his life and work than with the
writer. The loving confidences of a common
calling were unbroken to the end. During the
weakness and ill-health at Buxton (England)
memory naturally with him went back to early

PREFACE 9

days, and sitting in the gardens or driving out on
the high uplands he told me many things that
will always remain with me as vivid impressions
of his hopes and aims. His life was no complex
problem to be slowly explained amidst doubts
and guesses as to the deeper meaning. His aim
was as direct as it was high. He felt himself to
be an ambassador for Christ beseeching men to
be reconciled unto God. May this sketch of his
life and work prolong for a little the tender
memories of his loving plea.

Thomas C. Hall, D. D.

Professor of Ethics^

Union Theological Seminary^
New York.

Contents

I

BOYHOOD DAYS
The Province of Ulster The Family Home.— Early Train-
ing — School Life. — The Old Meeting-house Earliest

Memories.— Christian Experiences . . . ig

II

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST
Early Entrance to College. — The Religious Life of Belfast
College. — Dr. Cooke and Dr. Edgar. — Undergraduate
Days. — Special Religious Influences. — The Evangeli-
cal Influences. — His Father's Death. — The Connaught
Proposals ...-.--. ^^

III

THE WEST OF IRELAND
Character of the West. — The Social Conditions. — The
Potato Blight. — Dr. Edgar's Note of Alarm. — Sym-
pathy in Belfast. — The Student Missionary. — Pulpit
Shyness. — Industrial Schools. — The Forms of Oppo-
sition. — Newspaper Work.— The Call to Armagh - 67

IV
THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH
Church Life in Armagh. — Marriage. — Methods as a Pastor.
— Missionary Work. — The Missionary Herald. — Family

12 CONTENTS

Concerns — Temperance Agitation. — Revival Experi-
ences.— Politics and the Crimean War.— The Needs of
Dublin ■------. gc

V

THE MINISTRY IN MARY'S ABBEY — DUBLIN

Mary's Abbey. — Irish Education. — National Schools. —
The Queen's Commissionership. — The Rutland Square
Church. — Vacations. — The Evangelical Witness. — Dis-
establishment and the Moderatorship. — Delegate to
America .-._---- 109

VI

FIRST JOURNEY TO THE UNITED STATES

Continental Travels. — First Voyage Across the Atlantic. —
First Impressions of New York. — The Old and New
School Assemblies. — Western Experiences. — Fast Trav-
eling. — Washington and Baltimore The Journey

Home ------._ 14^

VII

THE CALL TO AMERICA AND ITS ACCEPTANCE

Hints of a Coming Call. — An Atlantic Message. — The Call
to America Accepted. — Remonstrances. — Reasons for
Going. — Correspondence with America. — An Irish Esti-
mate of Service Rendered - - - 169

VIII

THE MINISTRY IN NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH

Arrival in New York. — The New York Home. — The Fifth
Avenue Church's History. — The Reunion. — Ideals of
Education. — Ideals in Preaching. — Immediate Success.
— Methods. — Pastoral Work - . - - 191

CONTENTS 13

IX

THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE
New York's Changes. — The New Building. — Fellow-
workers in the Congregation. — Outside Activities. —
Education. — Home Missions. — Sunday-Schools. — ■
Powers as a Debater. — Church Extension and City-
Missions. — Literary Work and Ambitions. — Theology 217

X

HOME LIFE AND SUMMER TRAVELS
Humor. — Freedom in Education. — Amusements. — The Va-
cation. — San Francisco. — Illness. — Mother's Death. —
Nephew's Death. — The House of Commons. — On
Board Ship. — Germany. — Attempted Assassination. —
The Press Absurd Reports . - . . 247

XI

CONTROVERSY AND ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING
Powers of Controversy. — Revision. — Misunderstandings. —
Counsels Rejected. — The Case of Dr. Briggs. — Union
Seminary. — Attitude towards Extremists. — Conception of
Fundamentals. ------- 273

XII

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS
Degrees and Honors. — Inter-denominational Fellowship. —
Church Unity. — Family Sorrows. — The Warsrawiak
Case. — The Demanded Resignation. — The Congre-
gational Protest.^The Church Reorganized - 293

XIII

THE LAST JOURNEY HOME
The Illness in New York. — Ordered to Buxton. — Increasing
Weakness. — The Journey to Ireland. — Last Visit to Rut-

14 CONTENTS

land Square Church. — The Journey Northward. — Home
Longings. — The Last Hours . . - . 327

XIV

THE LAST RITES
The Funeral in Ireland. — The Remains Taken to New

York. — Services in New York Tributes to the

Memory, — The Last Resting-Place .... 337

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGES

JOHN HALL Title

THE HOME IN IRELAND 22

THE COLLEGE CIRCLE 49

MRS. JOHN HALL 88

DR. JOHN HALL AT THE AGE OF THIRTY 122

DR. JOHN HALL AT THE AGE OF THIRTY-EIGHT 148

CABLE— CALL TO AMERICA . . . 171

DR. JOHN HALL'S MOTHER .... 260

LIFE

The " Roscommon and Leitrim Gazette" nth December, 18^0.

Nay, Life is not the thing thou makest it ! 'tis not

To work and rest, to eat and sleep, and say — 'tis well.

'Tis not to breathe the air of each new day, and tread

Its round as does the sentinel, and boast at night

That thou hast done thy work — ^it is not insect-like

To flit from flower to flower — and sip what thou hast named

A new delight : but which the wise fear not to call

But perfumed poisons — it is not to kill the time.

As though time were thy mortal enemy — 'tis not

To hold up to thy lips the maddening cup, of which

The fire distilled hath, worse than lightning — blighted souls,

And been the prelude sad to fires eternal !

'Tis not, where graceful forms obey the impulses

Of sweet and joyous melody, and revel in

The mazes of the dance, like her, who took the fee

For her performance, in the faithful Baptist's blood 1

This is not Life, and if thou deem'st it is — alas !

Eternity will sadly undeceive thy soul.

And Death will prove thy thought supremely mad !

Oh ! did'st thou know how minds, once like thine own, regard

Thy trifling, thou would'st surely ask thyself at times

" How seem I in the holy eye of Him who gave

This life, and bade me serve Him ever ? "

'Tis not life !
'Tis dancing on the scaffold — singing songs of joy.
When justice saith of thee thou art " condemned already."

No it is life, to serve the Maker of our soul.
To feel His power, admit His justice, and escape
17

i8 LIFE

His wrath deserved by sheltering beneath the tree

Blood-sprinkled^ where, and only, where is life eternal —

To be filled with holiest aspirations that take hold

Of things in heaven, — to hope and fear, and act

As children of a King. It is to consecrate

The passing hour, and to the high behests of heaven

To yield unfeigned submission — when the soul.

Unchained, from earth's severest toils can look away

With eye unkindled, upon crowns, and harps, and thrones,

And say in humble faith, " these are for me — the blood

Of Him I love hath bought them, and His grace hath made

Them mine irrevocably." This is joyous life !

The dawning of a deathless day — the vestibule

Of Heaven's own glorious temple — and who liveth thus,

Shall tread its courts forever.

Then, although our life
Be '* but a vapor," it is such an one as shall
Soar high in sunlight, leave its grosser part awhile
On earth, and be absorbed into the holy heaven.

I. BOYHOOD DAYS

TO AN INFANT

FROM THE PERSIAN EV SIR WILLIAM JONES

When thou wast born, a naked helpless child,

Thou only wept while all around thee smiled.

So live, that sinking in thy last long sleep,

Calm thou may'st smile, when all around thee weep.

BOYHOOD DAYS

THE PROyiNCE OF ULSTER. THE FAMILY HOME. EARLY
TRAINING. SCHOOL LIFE. THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE. EAR-
LIEST MEMORIES. CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.

THE Province of Ulster lacks some of the
picturesque features tliat mark the southern
and western parts of Ireland, nor is its soil the
most fertile, yet a sturdy race has made it by far
the most prosperous and contented portion of
the Island. This northern section of the country
was settled by Scotch and north of England
Protestants to whom King James gave the land
thus hoping to secure loyal support against the
turbulent Roman Catholic opposition. ^ Among
the Scotch settlers there went some of the family
of Hall. The Scotch home is said to be still in
the hands of the older branch of the family.

All the descendants remained true to the old
Scotch traditions, and the environment in which
the subject of this memoir grew up was thus
stoutly Protestant and Presbyterian. He was the
eldest son of William Hall and Rachel McGowan.
For six generations the family had maintained

' Cf. Prendergast's " Irish Settlement."

22 BOYHOOD DAYS

possession of Ballygorman, County Armagh,
where my father was born on the 31st of July,
1829. He was baptized in the same year on
October 13th, by his mother's cousin the Rev.
William McGowan. There came eight ' other
children, all save three still living. Two little
girls died in childhood, and one brother Robert
Gillis, only survived his brother by about a year
and a half. The three sisters still remain in the
home country, but all the brothers either preceded
or followed their eldest brother to America.

It is not difficult for any one, at all familiar with
the north of Ireland to form some picture of the
simple home in which the family grew up. The
little cottage still stands in the midst of the
fields. A narrow lane bordered by thorn hedges
leads up to the doorway. The softly rolling
country is dotted by hundreds of other cottages
not much varied in size and appearance. All
neatly whitewashed, and now rather stiffly
proud of slate roofs; these being an innovation.
Part of the beauty of the countryside in the
early days were the thatched roofs under which
the birds built their nests, and twittered a noisy
welcome to the early risers. Under a thatch

' Robert G., Hannah, Elizabeth, Sarah Jane, James, Mary,
Mary Hall, Samuel M.

Q
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W

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X

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a

BOYHOOD DAYS 23

roof William Hall brought up his family. He
was a man of high standing and wide influence
in his community. He was an elder in the
Church, and with him the position was one of
solemn responsibility. He seems also to have
been a much sought counsellor in the affairs of
the cojTimunity and to have enjoyed a wide
acquaintance and high respect.

Wealth he did not have. A large family and
impaired health shadowed his later days with
natural anxieties. Moreover the defalcation of a
fellow trustee for a ward placed in their joint
charge by the courts greatly harassed him.
William Hall at once assumed the full responsi-
bility of making good the loss. This sum was a
large one for those days and circumstances; and
although he carried out his resolution with un-
swerving fidelity the effort must have contrib-
uted, his children always thought, to the shorten-
ing of his days. It was his ambition to give all
his boys the education so eagerly coveted alike in
the north of Ireland as in Scotland by Protestant
parents for their sons. Very early, therefore, the
eldest boy was started on the highroad of learn-
ing at the little neighborhood school kept by a Mr.
Wm. Whitten at Lough gilly. My father has left
the following little sketch of that early day:

24 BOYHOOD DAYS

"Probably a village school in Ulster, Ireland's
most prosperous province, u'ould be less impress-
ive to the adult mind than is a well-ordered
Ward school in New York; but to the present
writer, at the age of five, or a little more, nothing
earthly could possibly be more solemn than the
country school, the day he was introduced. He
remembers the appalling hum as he approached,
the awful introduction to "the master," the
masked battery of strange and scrutinizing eyes,
and the agony of suspense in which he sat and
watched the retreating friendly form that had
sheltered him till then, wondering what would
now be done to him! With some such feelings,
possibly, the Androcles whose acquaintance was
made afterwards, awaited the approach of the lion.

"And the lion became quite tame and like An-
drocles, even kind. This teacher had only a
parish school, one of that sort of which it was
playfully said that the pupils mainly learned the
catechism, and to take off their hats to the squire.
But this man was a true teacher, and a gentleman
— he is now a good clergyman in Canada — and
if for no other reason, the present writer, in
memory of him, will revere the calling of the
teacher, and claim respect for the class as long as
he lives."

BOYHOOD DAYS 25

The more modern methods of learning without
work were not then in vogue. The early drill,
however, insured fair spelling and some knowl-
edge of the English grammar. The much-
thumbed spelling-book still exists, which was
learned by heart from end to end, definitions and
all. When that had been exhausted a short
dictionary took its place, and was similarly mas-
tered. At a very early age the handwriting of
little John was formed, and by its regularity and
beauty became the pride of a large family circle.
So much indeed was this the case, that in the
evening the younger children of the family and
the neighbors round about were gathered in the
kitchen of the farmhouse, and this, as the
largest room obtainable, was made into a night-
schoolroom with the eldest boy as teacher under
the general superintendence of the parents.

Any true picture of the family life of those
days would imply almost poverty to those ac-
customed to greater luxury. The daily fare was
of the simplest character. The products of the
farm being almost wholly relied upon to supply
the table. Fresh meat was not freely eaten. In
the evening those who had worked in the fields
gathered about the turf fire in the kitchen
and over it hung a huge pot of oatmeal boiled

26 BOYHOOD DAYS

with the buttermilk from the dairy. This with
oat-cakes formed the principal food of the whole
countryside. Money was very scarce. The
farm methods were exceedingly primitive, and
the lack of coal and capital made any changes
difficult and often unprofitable. Even the cloth-
ing was largely home-made and constructed with
a view rather to endurance than to fashion. Yet
for all this, enforced simplicity was not felt as
poverty. Nowhere in the world can there be
found to this day, a prouder independence than
among the self-sustaining Ulster farmers.

When it became apparent that the capacity of
the oldest son easily warranted the ambition of a
college education, William Hall took up bravely
the burden of making due preparation for this
step. Mr. Whitten left soon for other parts, and
his successor then confessed not long after that
he could do no more for the boy. Some three
miles from Ballygorman a man of good parts had
established a classical school. The father at first
took lodgings for his son near the school, but
this plan was found to be inconvenient; then the
boy, already tall for his age, walked with his
school-books flung over his shoulder in a green
bag. The walk was, however, too much for the
growing lad, and the father bought him a pony.

BOYHOOD DAYS 27

To the end of his days he carried the scar caused
by the pony throwing him against a mile-stone
on the roadside.

The classical drill was narrow in range, but
sound and thorough. The Latin of those days
was never forgotten. And all through my
father's life he had the habit of writing little ex-
clamatory prayers in the Latin tongue in his note-
books or at the close of sermons and addresses.
The growing mind of a rather sober boy was
now stimulated by the sense of increasing re-
sponsibility. For the health of the father began
now to fail steadily. Towards eventide the
parent would take his eldest son by the hand,
and with him would go out to the little orchard
behind the cottage, and there overlooking the
"far land" in the glow of the closing day, he
would commune with God; and he himself pre-
maturely bent with hard toil, anxiety and
care, would impress on the boy's mind lessons
he never forgot of fidelity to duty, obedience to
God, dependence upon prayer, and of faithful-
ness in all undertaken tasks. Even then the
boy's mind was filled with awe and hope at the
prospect of undertaking the public ministry of
God's word. When the minister came, as was
the wholesome custom, and gathered about him

28 BOYHOOD DAYS

all the children to question and instruct them in
religious matters, the eldest boy was always
foremost in the accuracy of the answering. Each
Sabbath the family made the way "across the
bogs " if fine, along the roadway in wet or win-
ter weather to the "meeting-house." Of this
my father has left a description.'

" High trees shade the place. Decent grave-
stones, neat walks, beech hedges, and a high,
strong wall dividing all from the main street —
the one street of the village — give the place the
air of a venerable and honored institution where
the living worship, and where the dead repose.
In the centre of the inclosure, along one side of
which flows a rivulet through what was once a
glen, rises the main building, solid in structure if
not artistic in shape, and approached by a fitting
gate, stone stairs and wide and sanded avenue,
with the graves of the people right and left of it.
You may walk straight up the aisle, with the
pulpit on your left and out at the corresponding
door, when another wide walk, similarly sur-
rounded, takes you to the ' retiring-room.' Close
by this retiring-room are the tombs of the minis-
ters who lived and died among the people, and

• In the New York Ledger, the owners of which have given
generous permission to reprint any material found useful.

BOYHOOD DAYS 29

over whose graves substantial monuments, with
fitting inscriptions, invite the attention and ven-
eration of all comers, and are read and re-read in
the warm summer days, when the people are
'waiting for the minister to go in.' Where
' fifty years of faithful service ' are credited to a
pastor whose remains sleep there — wife and
several children beside him — it is not to be won-
dered at if the name is repeated with tenderness,
and held in veneration.

"It is more than fifty years since the present
writer was taken as a child to that ' meeting-
house.' The minister was, to him, old, for a
child counts any one old whose hair is turning
gray, but he was remarkably kindly; and the
kindness was all the more touching from the
gravity of his bearing, and the dignity of his
walk. I am not sure that all that he preached
was understood, but it was all so solemn, tender,
and suggestive of Deity and eternity, and the at-
tention of the people was so reverent, that it was
impossible to be inattentive. Much is said now-
adays about making the churches attractive to
the young, and the effort often leads in the direc-
tion of competition with popular institutions that
thrive by the number of tickets they can sell.
The writer may be mistaken, but all his recollec-

30 BOYHOOD DAYS

tions would indicate that to make the church and
its service solemn, tender, true to the facts of
life, real, sincere, and not a show of things not
rendered real to the young mind, is the best way
to make it revered and beloved by those who
have not yet been demoralized by ' spectacles '
and palpable insincerities.

"Fifty years ago the floors were earthen, ex-
cept the great double pews at each end, which
were ascended by a couple of steps, of course
with a boarded floor and a wooden cover, like
the venerable four-poster beds of the past genera-
tion. In one of these it was the writer's privilege
to sit and, while singing was going on, to gaze
with admiration at the huge beams stretched
from wall to wall, and on which rested the ' up-
rights ' that held up the roof, for ceiling the
building had none. On the angle made by the
walls of two converging aisles stood the pulpit,
high, narrow, with a roof over it with no visible
support, and below it, a smaller one for the pre-
centor, whose duty it was to give out each line
of the psalm, sing it, or rather lead in the singing
of it, and then give the next, and so on. These
arrangements can be so described as to provoke
a smile, but they were on the line of the life of
the people; they were of a piece with the ways

BOYHOOD DAYS 31

of other churches, and they were not incompat-
ible with solemnity any more than with decency.
1 can well remember the Communion Sabbath —
the long tables, covered with the white linen,
stretching all the length of the aisles, and the
people, psalm-books in hand, slowly and with
the most devout bearing, moving out of their
pews to their places, singing as they went:

' I'll of salvation take the cup,
On God's name will I call ;
I'll pay my vows now to the Lord
Before His people all.'

I have seen stately processions in historic cathe-
drals, and still more moving spectacles of thou-
sands starting to their feet under one impulse,
but never anything more like reverent acknowl-
edgment of the Divine than then appeared in
the old meeting-house."

Thus he grew up a tall thin lad, not then pos-
sessing the muscular vigor he afterwards de-
veloped, but with good health, and an envied
reputation among his playmates for good temper,
and although not strong yet quick and agile.
Indeed at jumping he was long preeminent both
at school and later at Belfast.

Narrow means lose much of their terror when
they are not contrasted with luxury, and do not

32 BOYHOOD DAYS

place us in the power of others. The struggle
with nature was hard for all alike. Manly inde-
pendence was possible even to the poor. Thrift
and daily toil entailed neither personal degrada-
tion nor loss of social standing. Work was the
normal occupation of all. Even as a young boy
my father had helped to earn his school fees by
giving lessons to those less advanced. When,
therefore, it was decided that he should go to Bel-
fast and prepare himself for the ministry,he looked
forward, as did practically all his fellow-students,
to helping himself through the course by teach-
ing, prize-taking, and in other legitimate ways.
There was a growing family to consider, and
little sisters and brothers made the utmost econ-
omy necessary.

The atmosphere of the home was in the best
sense of that word religious. At the same time
intellectual influences were not lacking. William
Hall, my grandfather, must have been a man of
considerable intellectual force. Even while
walking with the plough he would tell his boy
stories from the Greek and Roman classics which
he had gathered from well-used translations, and
early he instilled into his son's mind a love for
good English verse. Years afterwards my father
could repeat poems he had so learned, and he

BOYHOOD DAYS 33

never quite gave up the practice of from time to
time learning verse. The simple easy rhythm of
his pulpit style was, no doubt, in good part a
product of this training.

When John Hall went away to complete his
education he carried with him, as he did through
all his life the savor and fragrance of pious love.

There were in those days in Ireland no com-
mittees to grant money to any boy who induced
his presbytery to give him a good character and
who wanted to study at the expense of the
church at large. There were, however, prizes
and places that scholarship gave a claim upon.
And although very young and by no means
strong all the teachers were agreed that William
Hall's eldest son should certainly go to Belfast
and prepare for the ministry. The last penny of
the sum spent by the unfaithful trustee had at
length been paid, and the prospects of the family
looked brighter. The classical school had been
pretty well exhausted by the diligence of the
pupil and so at a very early age it seemed best to
send the youth to Belfast.

It was a simple boyhood, filled with work, and
with, perhaps, a minimum of play. Yet withal
that childhood was always looked back to with
tender memories of its joys, and a deep and rev-

34 BOYHOOD DAYS

erent love for all the simple associations, and
gentle influences of the home. Of that child-
hood my father published himself some mem-
ories in the Evangelical Witness under the
date 1861. He was at that time himself the
editor, so the impressions were not signed by
him, but given under the heading "I remember,"
by "An Old Boy." Some extracts are as fol-
lows:

"I remember the first conscious impression I
had of beauty. I think it almost as distinct a
recollection as I have. It was a summer after-
noon: we lived in the country, and in a house of
no particular pretensions. It had trees about it,
many of them sycamores, in which the wild bees
were keeping up a pleasant hum. My brother —
he was younger than I — and myself were playing
in front of the house, when my mother raised
the window, and calling us, handed each some
bread and honey, with some kindly word — I for-
get what. I think our pleasure pleased her, for
her face beamed as it had never beamed to me
before, and for the first time I was distinctly
conscious that my mother was beautiful! It had
a great effect on me. My mother was always
good to me, and I revered her, but now I had a
new feeling towards her. She was like an angel

BOYHOOD DAYS 35

to me now. Ah, mother! long years have gone
since then. On that face, there has been many a
tear, tears over the little dead bodies, tears over
their father's coffm, tears, no doubt, over me,
and that face is changed to all others. 1 keep in
my heart the photograph that was taken of it
that summer afternoon, long, long ago, and I
think, like that will be my mother's face to me
in heaven.

"1 remember the first real cry 1 ever, with my
heart, sent up to God. Do not tell me that chil-
dren have no troubles. Do not think because the
tears soon give place to laughter they did not come
from sorrow. I had early troubles, for there
were tyrants — cruel and wanton tyrants of eight,
nine and ten years of age, at school with me.
The teacher closed it with prayer — a good cus-
tom, — and I prayed. Prayers wrung from us by
fear, I know, are not the best, but they are better
than none, and I prayed them. My childish heart
did actually ask God to save me from my tor-
mentors. Oh, boys and girls! do not make any
child's life bitter at school. He may cry to God
against you, and God may hear and avenge him.
******

" I remember the first deep remorse 1 ever had.
It was a dreary winter day, and 1 do not remem-

36 BOYHOOD DAYS

ber how it came about, but a poor wretched dog
came into our hands, and i and anotherboy made
sorry sport for ourselves by throwing the creature
into the water, pelting it with stones, and when
it sweltered to the bank, pushing it in again. In
one of its attempts to get out, I bent down to
hurl it back, when the creature turned its eye on
me with such a look of entreaty and reproach —
such an appealing, deprecating lookl It went to
my heart. 1 could not touch it again. 1 won-
dered how my playmate could. I saved it from
his hands, but I was too much of a coward to
tell him why. Oh, I shall never forget that look
from the dumb, helpless, suffering animal. It may
seem profane to say it here, but I know the force
of 'Jesus turned and looked upon Peter.' Many
a time I have felt remorse since then, but I doubt
if ever it was more poignant than under the eye
of that poor dog.

" I remember the first falsehood. My father had
taken pains to teach me a lesson one evening, and
he inquired particularly the next, was I not best
in my class ? It was too much for me. I said
yes, and felt degraded and condemned. Uncon-
sciously he tempted me, but I should not have
given way. And now I am older, I doubt if
parents are wise when they inquire too minutely

BOYHOOD DAYS 37

about the sayings and doings of tiieir young ones,
from themselves. Our school, I am sure, was
not a wonderful school in any way. You might
see the boys and girls on a November morning,
when the hoarfrost whitened the crisp grass,
tripping along with little red hands, and shining
faces, with a book or two under one arm and ' a
turf (of peat) under the other, which, on enter-
ing the school, was added to the heap that
warmed the house for the day. And yet, simple
and primitive as it was, we had the usual vari-
ety of character, and 1 think, speaking generally,
those whom 1 know now, are very much in ma-
turity, what they were beginning to be as chil-
dren.

"I remember the first lively impression 1 had of
natural beauty. 1 had gone to another school,
from which I was returning through the field. It
was the end of March, and a sunny afternoon.
Descending a gentle incline towards a little
stream, I stepped on the mound that rose above
it on one side, to jump over it to the lower bank
on the other. I paused before leaping. The
water was clear, showing the smooth pebbles
underneath it, and the sunbeams glinting off them
through the little eddies. The wild plants on the
margin were coming out, and the moss and water

38 BOYHOOD DAYS

herbage had a cheerful tint of green, and all was
so calm, so clear, so harmonious, so suggestive
of — not thoughts but feelings — pleasant yet some-
how pensive — as to seem almost intelligent. It
was long before 1 made my leap, and went on
my way. 1 have seen many things since, —
mountain, glen and flood, but did I ever taste a
purer joy from these than when I discovered that
new delight ?

* * ^ * 5ff *

" I remember the first death 1 saw. When I was
leaving home one morning for school, mother's
face was more than commonly pale. She had
been up all night, and on her knee lay the cause
of her wakefulness. Poor baby was ill — she
feared, dying. Her little bosom heaved — even I
could see — too much, and her little placid face
had a look of languor as she lay with the head
thrown back on her mother's arms. Mother
made me kiss the baby particularly; — her heart, I
knew, would fain have kept me at home, but
what could I do ? I went to school. When I
came home the house was more than usually still,
without and within. There was a hushed solem-
nity over all, and I saw the little baby face, the
stillness of death on it, and the little curls drawn
out from the small white cap, and falling on the

BOYHOOD DAYS 39

baby brow, and mother sat looking at the closed
eyes, and hair, and little fingers, oh, with what
a terrible, still grief! That was the first death
that came near me, and 1 had far more thought
about it than children are supposed to have. 1
used to stand with my mother, when we went to
' meeting ' — we went a little earlier often than
the people — by the little grassy grave where baby
lay, and I knew my mother was thinking of her
little one, ' now ' she said, ' like an angel in
heaven.' I know now what mother then felt.

rp ^ ^ ^ ^ 't^

"1 remember when I first went to Sabbath-
school. It was a union school, the curate and the
country being joined in its management, and where
little, stout red-leather Psalm-books, with clasps,
were coveted prizes among the children, before
they were big enough to earn Bibles. When they
did earn them by giving in ever so many tickets,
each representing a Sunday at school, and so many
verses learned ' by heart ' what honest pride they
felt! You might see the happy little maiden
with her Bible in the folded pocket handkerchief,
with a sprig of ' sither-wood ' — that fragrant (?)
plant which the Scottish settlers brought with
them — or mayhap a full-blown rose gracing the
exposed top of the precious book, blithely

40 BOYHOOD DAYS

tripping to 'meeting' with father or mother.
Ah, me! these simple luxuries are giving place
to French gold and fashionable 'gauntlets,'
but we do not complain. The world moves,
and we believe Ulster has never had as many
Bible-loving maidens as at this moment. By
such as these, one of them is in heaven now,
1 think, — 1 was conducted to the Sabbath-
school. There was much learning of texts,
and exercise of the memory. There was little
exercise of the judgment and no appeal to
the heart. The school did good, for it formed
good habits, familiarized the mind with the words
of the Scriptures; but it did far less good than
it might, had there been teachers fit to teach.

"1 remember reading seven chapters of Deu-
teronomy in a morning in that school. On — on
— on we went without note or comment. Now
that 1 am older I see the need of training teachers
if we are to get good from our Sunday-schools,
and I am thankful, and I hope so are my readers,
that we have so many to teach, speaking what
they know, and inviting to a Saviour whom they
have found themselves."

The influences of that Christian home were
always emphasized by my father. He felt that
such surroundings made a vast difference in judg-

BOYHOOD DAYS 41

ing of a life. He went himself naturally into all
the full duties of the Christian profession, having
been baptized into the Church as a child. In re-
ply to an inquisitive editor, he once wrote:

" In reply to your inquiries 1 have to say, with
profound gratitude to God, that 1 was brought
up in the closest connection with the church,
learned the ' Shorter Catechism ' in my home,
attended Sabbath-school, and, 1 think, believed
in the Saviour for years before becoming a com-
municant. This step I was permitted to take at
the age of fourteen, after passing through the
communicants' class of a faithful pastor."

In this home the vacations away from college
were always spent. And to the school whence
he had gone to college he returned to assist dur-
ing his leisure time. He also aided his father on
the farm as much as he was able to, and while at
home made himself useful by teaching the
younger children. His sisters say they remember
the dehght with which he was always welcomed
back from Belfast, and to him they always looked
almost more as a father than a brother in later
years.

II. LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

LINES TO A CLASSMATE

ON ONE BEING TAKEN VERY ILL

Matt. 8 : 14.

Beside the sufferer's fever'd bed

Behold the Saviour stand,
Calmly He bids disease depart,

And takes the burning hand.
Obedient to the voice of Him

Whose word allayed the storm.
Fever at once the victim leaves —

Forsakes the wasted form.

And is the Saviour weaker now ?

Shortened His helping arm ?
Less willing, or less able He

To shield from every harm ?
No ! He whose word of matchless power

Frees from the threatening grave — ■
Who set at nought the tomb's embrace,

Has still the power to save.

May He, then, now exert that power,

Make groundless all our fears,
And raise hitn from the bed of pain

In answer to our prayers !
Restore him. Lord ! to eager friends.

As gold tried and refined,
That he may preach a Saviour's love,

And mercy to mankind.

— J. Hall.

44

II

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

EARLY ENTRANCE AT COLLEGE. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF
THE PLACE. DR. COOKE AND DR. EDGAR. THE UNDER-
GRADUATE DAYS. SPECIAL RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES. THE
EVANGELICAL INFLUENCES. HIS FATHER'S DEATH. THE CON-
NAUGHT PROPOSALS.

IT was at an exceedingly early age even in those
days that the name of John Hall was in-
scribed on the books of the College at Belfast.
He began his work there with the autumn session
of 1841, and was therefore just beginning his
thirteenth year. It is of no little importance to
form some estimate of the religious and in-
tellectual atmosphere from which the boy went
and into which he entered. Ireland was feeling
the full force of the evangelical movement.
What Dr. Chalmers was in his way doing for
Scotland Dr. Henry Cooke was accomplishing
for Ireland. The home in Ballygorman had felt
the impulses of a newly awakened religious life.
The type of personal piety which was one of the
best products of the evangelical movement was
familiar to the lad as he saw it in both his father
and mother. He was too young to have been
45

46 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

greatly stirred by the battle which Dr. Cooke had
just won against moderatism and a loose Arian-
ism— as it was called in those days. The signs
of Dr. Cooke's victory were the enforcement of
subscription to the standards and the control of the
theological teaching in Belfast. The intellectual
life of the north of Ireland had been quickened
by the struggle. Although the College of Bel-
fast as then at work would to-day be regarded
as poorly equipped, and badly arranged, neither
equipment nor systems really constitute a place
of learning. There was to be found in its teach-
ing the fresh earnest spirit of a triumphant
church. The class-rooms still resounded with
the arguments and the battle-cries of the past
conflict, but better than these battle-cries there
pervaded the lecture-rooms a deep sense of a
newly awakened religious feeling. High per-
sonal standards of godly living and entire con-
secration to the work of the ministry made the
theological students a powerful influence among
their fellows. The whole atmosphere of the
place was pervaded by the intense feeling to
which the reawakening had given rise.

According to the arrangement of studies the
first sessions were devoted to the liberal arts.
The professors in the theological department

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 47

taught however, here also. Hence the degree
conferred upon "Johannem Hall" in November,
1845, is signed by Drs. Edgar as the moderator
pro tern, Robert Parks, Adam Mongomery (Ex-
aminer in Natural Philosophy), Killen (Professor
of History), Robert Wilson (of Sacred Literature),
Esaias Stern (Mathematics), and John Bentley
(Examiner in Latin). From this it is seen that
even in the undergraduate days theological in-
terests were not neglected. Lecture courses
were paid for as they were listened to, and the
student received a card from the professor sta-
ting that the fee had been paid and the course
completed. At the end of the courses examina-
tions were held, and in many departments extra
examinations for prizes were also taken. The
note-books of these early studies only in part
survive, and are not neatly kept. But the note-
books of the later specifically theological class-
room work exhibit great care, and are written in
the fine and legible handwriting of which men-
tion has already been made.

Student life in those days was not what it has
since become; and was totally different from the
highly organized life of an American College.
The standard of expense was very low, and
nearly all earned their way in part at least. It is

48 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

needless to say that a walk in the country was the
only athletic exercise common to all, and that col-
lege life was almost unknown. The students lived
in lodgings. They generally supplied their own
breakfasts and teas. Dinner was supplied to
groups, who clubbed together for the purpose, by
enterprising families in the neighborhood of the
college building. The class-rooms were often
overcrowded. Some of the instruction was in-
ferior in quality. At the same time a spirit of
earnestness and work made the life a fruitful one
in achievement afterwards.

For a boy so young as was the subject of this
life the work was hard, and in addition my
father soon began to teach in a girls' school some
distance from the college buildings. This work
of teaching he maintained until the close of his
studies. He often spoke of having rather wasted
the first two or three years of his Belfast days,
but that is not the impression made by the record
of his daily doings. His own testimony how-
ever, given in a letter written years after, to a
nephew is as follows: "I lost a good deal of
time from being irregular in my ways of work-
ing, at one time idling, and at another working like
a horse, though the result was too often sugges-
tive of another animal with longer ears. 1 hope you

-

/I /

'^V /'

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 49

will work steadily, never running in arrears. Be
thorough in whatever you learn and skim nothing."

Undoubtedly the real intellectual and spiritual
influences of the college began to be felt most
distinctly when the formal theological courses
had been entered upon.

It was at this time that a few earnest friends
banded themselves together to pray, to improve
their own spiritual life and to promote a new
missionary spirit. When separating for their life-
work these friends resolved that on Saturday
evenings they should remember each other in
prayers and by name as long as they lived.

That little roll of names has been sadly re-
duced by death and the everlasting reunion
of an eternal fellowship has begun. The fel-
lowship was very dear to them all, and
formed an abiding influence upon my father's
life. Often on Saturday nights he spoke of
those friends, and recalled the early aspirations
and inspirations of those college days. He had
later in life a little reproduction made of his list
of names and addresses as he furnished them to
the little band as a reminder of their pledge.

The missionary spirit was particularly empha-
sized by Dr. Edgar who met with the students
and guided them in their work and prayer con-

50 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

ferences. Hence his name appears among those
to be ever remembered before the throne of
grace, although he was as a teacher looked upon
somewhat differently from the student friends.
To Dr. Edgar all eagerly went for advice and
help, and his theology seems, along with that of
Dr. Cooke, to have practically moulded the the-
ological thought of the little band.

The type of thought was that prevalent about
that time in Calvinistic circles that had felt the in-
fluence of the evangelical movement. Naturally
it was eclectic and not always scientifically self-
consistent, but in its clear definiteness, and sharp
positive outlines, it was a system well suited for
the practical work given the men to do.

In Hebrew and Church History and later in
Church History Essays my father repeatedly took
prizes for good work. These were in the form
of well selected books, admirably bound, and
well fitted even to-day to grace a good library.

Naturally the north of Ireland looked largely
to Scotland for intellectual stimulus. Continental
thought left little or no traces on the lecture
notes, and many of the modern questions were,
of course, not even considered. Dr. Cooke in
his controversy had had occasion to build up a
very strict theory of inspiration, and this was

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 51

thoroughly inculcated not only by himself, but
by the teachers whom he had to some degree
gathered about him in Belfast. The main out-
lines of this system were accepted cordially by
my father, and he never saw any reason for
seriously modifying them.

The influence of Dr. Cooke's clear system
softened a good deal by the kindlier spirit of Dr.
Edgar is marked in the correspondence of all these
student friends throughout its course.

In after years the influence of this supreme man
of action is traceable throughout my father's life,
even though differences on various subjects had
somewhat widely separated Dr. Cooke from my
father. At this time, also, a struggle was going
on in the then established church of Ireland,
which influenced the young student. This con-
flict was between the evangelical elements on
the one hand, and the so-called "high and dry"
party on the other, whose ascendency dated from
Laud. In this struggle the sympathies of the
Presbyterians were naturally with evangelical-
ism. This produced a very deep and bitter feel-
ing against the Presbyterians on the part of the
Established Church on its high church side. In-
deed they attempted to revive old laws by which
certain Presbyterian marriages were illegal, and

52 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

only in 1844 was a bill passed in the face of the
bitter opposition of the Irish bishops making the
offspring of such marriages legitimate. The
teaching therefore of Belfast at that time was full
of polemic, not always moderate in tone, against
the claims of Rome and the High Church Episco-
pacy. Particularly forceful and complete was
Dr. Killen's treatment of the Protestant side of
this controversy. These were the special in-
fluences that controlled to a good degree the de-
velopment of my father's thought.

At the same time distinct notes of the evangel-
ical awakening appear in his early religious ex-
perience. The very banding together of the
group of friends reminds us of similar bands in
Oxford and under the haystack in New England.
The missionary spirit was new to Presbyterian-
ism, and was an importation from the evangel-
ical awakening. This laid strong hold upon these
friends, and the field of labor nearest to them was
Connaught and the south of Ireland generally.
The students of the college formed a society to
support missionaries of their own in this region.
In this work my father took an active part.
, The social activity of the awakening was also
a marked feature of the best religious life of
those days. Temperance bands were formed to

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 53

combat the great and increasing evils of drunk-
enness. The older orthodoxy looked with sus-
picious eye upon this movement, and some
fiercely resented it as an imputation upon the
virtue and Christian living of undoubtedly good
men o( the past, who nevertheless often came
home decidedly the worse for the social glass
always offered at weddings or any social gathering.
It was at that time the custom, as it indeed
still is in parts of Ireland to-day, to distribute
"tokens" or little pieces of metal before the
communion to those qualified to go to the Lord's
table. The minister before the quarterly com-
munion distributes these ' ' tokens, " going with an
elder from house to house. At each house some-
thing was offered to drink, and alas! many a time
the days before the communion found excellent
men of really godly disposition confused and dis-
turbed if not actually intoxicated in consequence of
the necessity laid upon them of accepting this mis-
taken hospitality. Against this evil my grand-
father, William Hall as an elder protested. And al-
though he was not himself a total abstainer in the
technical sense, he impressed upon his boy John the
sense ofthe evils of intemperance, and led the young
student to give much of his time both as a young
man and later on in life to temperance reform.

54 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

My father wrote once what he called a "tem-
perate autobiography " in explanation of his
stand in this matter. He did not sympathize
with the political extremists in his American life,
and to some degree the "autobiography" was
in answer to criticisms upon his position. I
venture to quote the article almost in full.

" In good old times fifty years ago, informal
hospitality took the frequent form of a ' glass of
wine' or 'punch.' It was the handiest thing
to offer a caller who came between meals. The
farmers were civil to one another in the way of
exchanging drinks at fair or market. Indeed, in
many cases, this was the way in which they paid
for the care of their horses: they 'put up' in
the yard of such an inn, and it was the correct
thing to ' take something for the good of the
house.' In every parish one could name two or
three farmers known to be 'too fond of a
glass;' but the thing would not be much or
severely spoken of. It was often the one blot on
the life, otherwise exceptionally good and kindly.
Boys were not encouraged to drink; and com-
monly did not.

"At college, at the age of thirteen, I heard, now
and then, of a student who took drink to excess.
Sometimes they were what we called the ' mad-

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 55

icals.' Illustrating the differences in habits in
different countries, for a man to be known as
taking 'oyster suppers' then imperilled his
reputation. They were a form of costly luxury,
indulgence in which was suspicious. We were
few of us rich. We all paid our own way, and
our class fees, and most of us learned two things
— the value of a shilling, and the habit of self-
reliance. The only temperance advocates of
whom I had then any knowledge were three;
first. Father Mathew, who, from 1840 onward,
made himself felt in Ireland; then Lyman
Beecher, whose ' six sermons ' had been brought
to my notice by Dr. John Edgar, the third, and
who ardently urged temperance as distinguished
from total abstinence. Though he took no
wine himself, his arguments and societies were
against the use of 'intoxicating liquors,' and he
did not put wine among them. The first I only
knew by public reports; the second by the 'six
sermons;' the third I often heard, and later
came to know intimately. He was a noble, elo-
quent, public-spirited man.

" Before graduating I lived for eighteen months
in the house of the teacher at whose school I had
prepared for college. I was classical master.
Friendly entertainments were common, for he

56 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

was well-to-do and hospitable. From the influ-
ences already named 1 took no drink at dinner,
the way being, on these occasions, to remove the
cloth, and set down wines and stronger drinks,
sugar and hot water. I recall with gratitude the
kindness of his wife who used to 'slip' before
me delicious raspberry vinegar, which, with
sugar and hot water, looked as nice as anybody's
'tumbler,' and saved the awkwardness of a
very verdant youth tacitly rebuking his seniors.
The hospitality was well meant, but bad in its
effects. I can recall, among others, a man of un-
doubted genius — for it requires genius to inspire
boys of twelve with a love of Homer — whose
professional career was marred by the habits
there, at least in part, contracted.

" Entering the theological college in 1845, 1 was
a student under Dr. Edgar. Some ministers had
been deposed for intemperance. A temperance
society was formed; it is hard to say why, but
my fellow-students made me its secretary. Its
promise was against ' intoxicating drinks.' We
were not bound against wine, but we rarely
drank it; some from disinclination; some for the
same reason that many estimable people here in
New York do not eat terrapin.

" We were practically total abstainers, but with

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 57

a general idea that to include wine in our pledge
would reflect upon names and institutions relig-
iously dear to us. Then I became a minister, and
of course had often to remonstrate with persons
Vv'ho ' drank to be drunk.' Many of these were
farmers, first in the West, and then in the county-
town of my native county. A sturdy farmer of
my charge would fall under my eye, on the mar-
ket-day, when he would rather not have seen
me. Talking to him then would have been un-
wise. Taking him in a calmer mood and a
quieter place I would make my kindly protest.
These men are commonly honest and frank, and
I always liked them for it. ' All very well, for
you, Mr. Hall,' (I had not been doctored then),
'to talk that way. You can take your wine.
We can't do that ; we take what we can get, and
it is stronger.' So he would answer.

"Then it was — over thirty years ago — that I
came to say: 'Well, I rarely take it, but to take
that ground from under your feet, here, now, I
abstain from wine, too, as a beverage,' and I
found the appeal so made had its weight with
them. I found others of my friends pursuing
the same course, and also putting it from their
table, and ceasing to offer it to friends. When
we said ' as a beverage ' we meant to exclude

58 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

the communion wine and the medicinal use of it,
and on that ground my old associates in Ireland
still stand."

The enthusiasm of the temperance band men-
tioned above for temperance reform finds expres-
sion in the correspondence of that date.

Slavery was not a burning question in the
north of Ireland, but it was one of the issues
forced upon England by the evangelical revival,
so in Ireland also meetings were held to denounce
slavery and encourage the " underground rail-
road " in America in its operations just then be-
ginning.

This "heresy," for so it also was deemed by
the older orthodoxy, my father also embraced,
and this interest together with the missionary
enthusiasm soon led to a correspondence with
Mr. George H. Stuart of Philadelphia, his distant
cousin and lifelong friend.

Perhaps, however, the most signal note of the
marked connection between the evangelical
movement and this religious interest was the
emphasis early placed upon teaching. Just as
the Methodist movement began by starting
schools, so the missionary activity of the new
spiritual life in the north of Ireland was shown
in the desire to bring spelling and reading within

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 59

the reach of even the poorest, whether Protestant
or Catholic. This firm confidence that education
must bring the truth of God to light, and a cer-
tain fearlessness born of the assurance that the
truth will stand examination marked the whole
tone of Dr. Cooke's and Dr. Edgar's teachings;
it also controlled wholesomely their ecclesiastical
policy, but has not always found imitators.

This same Protestant spirit also marked the
temper of my father. He felt that even danger-
ous teachings must be duly and fairly examined,
then answered and exposed. In this spirit and
under the guidance of Dr. Killen he made as a
student an examination of the Jesuit movement,
and produced an essay that gained recognition
by taking of a prize. The fairness and calmness
of the treatment of this topic by a boy in the north
of Ireland at that day is a quite remarkable evi-
dence of the sanity of the historical class-room.
Naturally the literature at hand was limited in
amount and defective in accuracy; at the same
time the spirit of the essay is scholarly and al-
though of course intensely Protestant is free
from the fanatical perversions all too common in
even mature polemical writing.

The personal religious life of the day was also
strongly under the influence of the evangelical

6o LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

modes of expression. The eager, sober-minded
student, hardly started upon the ministry before
a diary was opened in which religious experience
and the results of careful self-examination are duly
noted. Later side-notes mark the distrust my
father felt of this excessive self-examination
made common by the Methodist class-room. At
the same time what has for us at this day an air
of unreality if not of positive cant, was without
question the sincere and earnest expression of
powerful longings, not always happily expressed,
for a more profound spiritual experience, and a
higher personal attainment in holiness.

Another mark was the religious poetry in
which all the friends seem to have more or less
indulged. In undergraduate days my father
filled a note-book with somewhat indifferent, yet
harmless and even smooth good English verse.
Later he brands the volume as "trash" and
marks the fact that now he despised what he then
admired, and disclaims particularly some very
harmless verse in honor of a young lady related
to him and an old family friend. From this on
the verses are religious in character, though the
literary quality does not improve. In his later
studies of English literature the student again re-
turned to secular themes, and often my father has

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 6i

told me that verse making was in his judgment a
fine training for the rhythm and balance needed
in a rhetorical pulpit style. He continued also
the habit gained from his father of learning
poetry, and although he seldom quoted it in his
later years, his early sermons have frequent quo-
tations included, and indeed so many are closed
with a selection of poetry that it seems almost to
have been a habit in early life to do this.

At this time the young student's taste seems to
have been for the rather morbid religious poetry
of the evangelical revival, and for Byron. He
did not own Shakespeare, but at his boarding-
house in Belfast the works of the master were in
the dining-room. School duties kept him up to
dinner-time, or nearly so, and he went directly
from the school where he taught to the boarding-
place. There in the few minutes that elapsed
before the meal was ready he succeeded in read-
ing the whole edition through. The class-book
notes of some of the college afternoon sessions
are enriched by eager imitations of the dramas
that had been thus devoured while he was wait-
ing.

Life early became a very sober reality for the
eldest boy in a large family. The head of the
household was most evidently failing rapidly.

62 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

Both father and son were eager to see the college
and theological courses completed. For the
father this was not quite to be. On the 20th of
September, 1848, the son was suddenly called to
say farewell to his best earthly friend. He had
reached home in time, and in a letter to his friend
Matthew Kerr he announced his loss. The letter
is mature for a lad of nineteen in the midst of his
first real and terrible sorrow. He writes :

45 Joy Street,
September 26th.
My Dear Matthew :

The event which has stained this paper (the black border)
has been the cause of my long silence at which you no doubt
wondered. On Saturday fortnight I was written for to see my
father, and till he had passed into a world without sickness or
pain I sat by his bed, rejoicing that in him patience had (done)
its perfect work. . . . After this he had no pain but
what followed from weakness and exhaustion and on Tuesday
night last slept in Jesus. The day before I got home he had
" set his house in order," and after that act he spoke and
prayed as one who had no more to do with the world. He was
able to converse freely till the last, and his conversation was
in heaven. We had made it a subject of prayer that he might
have such glimpses of the glory that shall be revealed as might
entirely wean the affections from earth — was that right? At
any rate, it would appear to have been granted, as he spoke of
the last enemy with perfect composure, talked of his change
with joy though we all wept around him, and appeared to have
much of the assurance of faith. On my offering him a little
wine at one time he said he should soon " drink new wine in
our Father's Kingdom," and when I asked him had he no fears
for eternity, his answer was " Who is he that condemneth ? It

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 63

is Christ tliat died, etc." I liave reason to bless God that I was
able to talk with him as one friend to another for it seemed as if
the relations of father and son were at times forgotten and we
became equals in Christ. On Friday most of our congregation,
of which he was the oldest elder, though but fifty, and very many
friends of all denominations accompanied all of him that was
mortal to the house appointed for all living. The text of a
funeral sermon preached yesterday was appropriate, " The
righteous hath hope in his death." ... I hope you
will write to me soon. I trust I am not repining although I
feel very lonely and melancholy, at times I cannot repress a feel-
ing of desolation — but I bless God that I need not sorrow as
those who have no hope. If you would learn divinity go to
the deathbed of a believer, if you would know the meaning of
Christ's being precious see a believer looking death in the face.
If you would see the sufficiency of the doctrine of free grace to
support and comfort in the last struggles hear a believer's dying
words. My father's were " I die happy." This he repealed
suddenly as if some new idea had flashed on his mind. After
this he only repeated with difficulty " Why tarry the wheels,
etc.," and soon after murmured with difificulty "joy unspeakable
and full of glory ! " and soon slept away. Dear Matthew,
" may you and I die the death of the righteous, and let our
latter end be like his." . . .

Ever affectionately yours,

J. Hall.

This death meant very serious struggle with
uncertainty and various calls of seeming duty.
The family was not rich. The teaching that had
so largely been supporting the student had been
given up to go to the sick bedside. And a call to
go to work in Connaught had been pressed in-
directly by some interested in the schools there.

64 LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST

The mother was firm in her intention to have the
study for God's ministry unbroken. The place
in the school was kept open, and my father re-
turned feeling that he could be more use to his
brothers and sisters if he completed honorably
his course of study. It was with heart heavy
with a sense of responsibility for the whole family,
a burden never laid down while life lasted, that
the bereaved boy returned to Belfast to take up
the final duties and decisions of a last year of the-
ological education.

The band of students had settled upon their
youngest member to represent them on the mis-
sionary field of Connaught. Matthew Kerr and
Hamilton Magee were already at work, and with
much misgiving and fear and trembling the de-
cision was accepted as "from the Lord," and the
immediate future was thus determined. Al-
though with a large measure of self-control my
father was really a shy and self-distrustful man.
He was also proud in the best sense of that word.
Self-respect was born in him, and no virtue has
shone more clearly in the stock from which he
sprang. He greatly dreaded the coming plunge
into active life. He dreaded meeting new faces
and new ways. And yet through his shy self-
distrust there breaks from time to time the sense

LIFE AND STUDIES IN BELFAST 65

of strength and confidence in his cause and in
himself.

He passed out from the college with the love
and respect of all his classmates, and the high
regards of his instructors. With Dr. Edgar and
Dr. Killen his relations became those of intimacy.
With Dr. Cooke he always felt a sense of "dis-
tant awe," he once remarked, and although the
relations remained cordial up to the parting, when
death took Dr. Cooke, yet some differences of
judgment in regard to ecclesiastical politics pre-
vented, in addition to great differences in age,
the same intimate relations that marked the
friendships with the others. Moreover Dr.
Cooke was in these last years not very active as
a teacher, and only in his ministry and in a class
in Bible exposition did my father come much in
contact with the great leader to whom Irish Prot-
estantism owes so great a debt.

III. THE WEST OF IRELAND

JESUS, SAVIOUR, PLEAD FOR ME !

Weaker than a bruisM reed,
Lord, I go Thy cause to plead ;
Thou my guide, ray helper be,
Jesus, Saviour, plead for me I

Though I meet contempt and scorn
I'll recall what Thou hast borne ;
Thou hast shared in failure's lot.
And Thine own received Thee not.

Give me, Lord, Thy humble mind,
Make me courteous, meek and kind.
What I need do Thou impart.
Help me reach man's hungry heart.

Grant me, as in utmost need
For Thee and Thy cause to plead ;
Should my voice still powerless be,
Jesus, Saviour, plead for me !

— J. H. in Missionary Herald, i85o.

68

Ill

THE WEST OF IRELAND

CHARACTER OF THE IVEST. THE SOCIAL CONDITIONS. THE
■POTATO BLIGHT. DR. EDGAR'S NOTE OF ALARM. SYMPATHY
IN BELFAST. THE STUDENT MISSIONARY. "PULPIT SHYNESS.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. THE FORMS OF OPPOSITION. NEWS-
"PAPER IVORK. THE CALL TO ARMAGH.

ALL the evils of wrong social adjustment in its
many forms have made themselves seen in
fearful vividness in Ireland. The distances be-
tween the owners and the workers of the soil
have been made felt by differences in religion,
custom, race and even tongue. In the change
from an agricultural to an industrial state England
suffered bitterly, but she had coal and made the
change to her advantage in the main. Ireland
had no coal. Blundering and even purposely
selfish laws had wiped out what industry Ireland
possessed. Only in the north of Ireland, — where
relative homogeneity of population, a greater
intelligence, Protestant freedom and the nearness
of English coal gave industry a chance to survive,
did the population really prosper.
In the south and west the introduction of the

potato made existence possible for a large pop-
69

70 THE WEST OF IRELAND

ulation, but it also excluded any thought of
proper progress. No section was more depend-
ent upon the potato than the beautiful but poor
province of Connaught, and no part of that prov-
ince is poorer than the southern section immedi-
ately between the Shannon and the wild Atlantic.
Here in 1846 the blight that fell upon the potato was
felt at once. Hunger stared the peasant in the face.
Dr. John Edgar, professor of divinity at the
Royal college of Belfast, was at that time in Con-
naught making an evangelistic tour. He was
the first to sound the alarm of coming famine in
a letter which had an enormous circulation. The
interest aroused in Belfast was, of course, very
great. In a letter to the Banner of Ulster Dr.
Edgar wrote of the population: " The great pro-
portion of them live on a bare and unproductive
soil; a few are possessors of as fertile a land as
was ever warmed by a genial sun. But what
can a farm of three or four acres — the average
size over large districts — do for the support of a
family ? Oats grown on it all, without any pas-
ture for the lean ass, man's faithful servant here,
would be far, indeed, from producing, in meal,
a sufficient supply, even were the landlord to
forego his whole claim. The potato, therefore,
has been the only resource, and in most cases

THE WEST OF IRELAND 71

without any addition but salt, or as a luxury salt
fish, their only food. Corn mills are for the rich,
and even the old querns,' once turned by the
hand of the poor, are of no use now; for the pig
so carefully reared, and all the corn, scarcely suf-
fice to satisfy the landlord's demands."

The awful year of famine was followed by a
year of hunger typhus. The famine had not, of
course, touched the richer land-owning classes,
but the fever did, and in 1848 their resources
were strained and financial disaster followed for
them. Ruin passed from family to family over
the whole south and west of the country.
Then to crown all in 1849 cholera made its ap-
pearance and stalked amidst the hunger-racked
peasantry, and the now bewildered and dis-
heartened gentry.

It was only natural that the Student's Mission-
ary association, with Dr. Edgar as the leading
spirit, should turn to distracted Connaught for
their field of labor. So it came about that the
association chose one of the youngest graduates
of 1849 to follow some friends, sent the year
before, into the work of home missions in the
west of Ireland.

> Quern was the coarse hand-mill used to grind the corn for
distilling purposes.

72 THE WEST OF IRELAND

It was thus in the summer of 1849, on the 6th
of June, that my father started on the long
journey, of those days, for Connaught. The
mail coach left Belfast very early in the morning,
but only part of the way could be travelled by the
mail coach, hence a car was used from Cloue to
the final destination.

It was with great fear and trembling that the
raw and shy lad fresh from college undertook the
work. Letters of that period speak of long and
prayerful consideration. Self-distrust and fear lest
the cause should suffer through inexperience
or want of thought made the young student hes-
itate longer than Dr. Edgar thought right, in un-
dertaking the commission of the students.

The examination before the presbytery had
been satisfactory, although shyness had been so
marked in the sermon which had to be preached,
that one of the older members in kindly fashion told
the young preacher he would get more help look-
ing into the eyes of those he was speaking to than
by trying to bore a hole in the roof with his eye. '

The work Dr. Edgar had started in the west of
Ireland consisted largely in schools of an indus-
trial as well as religious character. He had seen

' The first actual sermon preached was in the little school-
house at Ballygorman — his old home.

THE WEST OF IRELAND 73

that the population must learn to support itself,
and that particularly the women must be taught
some useful art. Thousands of the young men
were already leaving the countryside. Women
and girls were left. Knitting and embroidering
linen were the household arts of the north of
Ireland. An association was formed in Belfast
of women to cooperate with Christian women
over the west of Ireland in founding schools in
which reading the Bible and knitting and em-
broidery formed the threefold course. In this
school work teachers were employed, but volun-
tary effort was also engaged.

My father had had, for so young a man, a wide
experience in teaching. As a mere child he had
taught a night class, as we have seen, in the
kitchen of the old home. From that on he was
engaged in teaching more or less steadily all
through his course. In his college experience he
had had to do with girls and young ladies,
some older than himself. All this was of great
help to him as he undertook his missionary work
in Ireland. Often in after life he has said to me,
"No knowledge or experience comes amiss to
the preacher."

His work was the inspection of schools, preach-
ing at various stations, distributing tracts, visit-

74 THE WEST OF IRELAND

ing the people at their homes, and establishing
Sunday-schools. He rode a good deal from
place to place, and preached as often as a service
could be arranged. The nearest larger centre
was Boyle, and headquarters were near Camlin.
Here the schools had had the earnest and untiring
support of Mrs. Emily Irwin, the lifelong friend
of Dr. Edgar. From the very beginning of the
work a warm friendship was established be-
tween Mrs. Irwin and my father. Mrs. Irwin
had been married very early in life, and very
early had been left a widow with three little boys.
The affection between my father and Mrs. Irwin
ripened into love, and very soon a practical en-
gagement was concluded. The union was a most
fitting one, and like interests and tastes made the
relationship a sweet and blessed partnership in
the life work of the ministry. Mrs. Irwin had
offered a site to her own church — the Established
Church of Ireland — for a school, but this offer
was refused. Dr. Edgar however accepted it,
and secured hearty support of his work in Cam-
lin from the whole Irwin relationship. These
schools were productive of a vast amount of
good, and years after in the far west of America
prosperous farms and comfortable homes told of
the good the instruction in these schools had done.

THE WEST OF IRELAND 75

One of the little band of college friends, the
Rev. Matthew Kerr, was at work at Dromore
West, some distance from Boyle, and another, the
Rev. Hamilton Magee, was engaged at some little
distance from Dromore. It was therefore one of
the pleasures of the work that an occasional day
could be spent together. Thus on the i8th of
June is an entry in a day-book, kept rather irreg-
ularly: — "Came home Sunday night wearied
from preaching, but did not go to bed. At three
o'clock A. M. rode to Boyle, by mail to Ballysodere
— thence by coach to Dromore to meet my dear
friend Matt. Kerr — all day there — saw 'the
Tower ' and in the evening joined by Hamilton
Magee — happy."

The ordination as missionary took place in
October in Ballina where the presbytery met in
1850, and by that time the work of the district
was in fullest activity. The discouragements
were however great. Many were leaving for
America. Land was rising again in rental price
from the efforts of English undertakers to in-
crease the size of holdings and use the land for
pastorage. Nor was the reception on the part of
the Roman Catholic priest cordial. They looked
upon the whole movement as an attempt to take
advantage of the needs of the people to proselytize.

76 THE WEST OF IRELAND

The work although done by Presbyterian min-
isters was in some sense undenominational.
Money was contributed to the school work by
Methodists, Episcopalians and especially by
Quakers. The instruction was simple and
mainly in the reading of the Bible. Even Roman
Catholic teachers were employed, and no pressure
was brought to bear on either parents or chil-
dren to become Protestants, save only as the in-
struction in reading the Bible tended that way.
Yet it was distinctly not only a Protestant but an
evangelical work and as such had the natural op-
position of the priests.

Nor were the priests the only ones to resent
the movement. The High Church party of those
days was rather the party of Laud and the " high
and dry' Anglicans of English History, than
what we now understand by the term. For this
type of thinking the Presbyterian Church was
more unsympathetic than the Roman communion.
The Established Church was sharply divided into
evangelical and High Church parties. The evan-
gelicals eagerly assisted in all the work of the
schools, and indeed in most cases had charge of
them. The rector and curate, however, of Boyle
fiercely resented the intrusion of Presbyterian
preaching. In a letter dated June the eleventh.

THE WEST OF IRELAND 77

1850, my father writes to his friend the Rev.
Matthew Kerr:

"My Dear Matthew: —

" I fear you think I was 'stiff ' in the matter of
your ' soiree.' No, no, I really could not go.
About that time the Boyle clergy were preaching
against me, and one of the sermons I am told is
in the press. The result will, I trust, be most
beneficial to us. It was meantime diminished
by half our Boyle congregations; one of the
curates actually walking before the chapel, and
turning the people back. But it has confirmed
many of our higher class hearers who won't be
frightened and who come out here (Camlin) to
show their sense of the wrong done us. The
curate in one sermon, without any names, com-
pared me to 'Absalom (!) stealing the hearts of
his Israel,' and warned them against being led
away by ' youthful zeal, etc' On Monday week
a missionary Church clergyman, a rector in
County Longford, visited Camlin, where I dined
on the day of his arrival to meet him. I asked
him to lecture for me next evening, which he
did. 1 conducted the services and he preached.
On Thursday he went into Boyle with me and

78 THE WEST OF IRELAND

was a hearer in our congregation. This has set
all the High Church element about Boyle into the
most violent ferment, and they talk of ' bringing
him over the coals ' for it."

On the other hand the relations with the
Wesleyans and the evangelical section of the
Established Church were most cordial. The
superstition of the people was very great. At
one time a priest denounced from the altar with
great violence my mother who was exceedingly
active in the school and relief work. That week
she was taken very ill with fever, and for some
weeks lay at death's door. The interpretation
put upon the incident was in danger of really in-
juring the school work, when the priest himself
took ill. He, poor fellow, died of the disease
and my mother fully recovered. The supersti-
tious people now reversed the judgment and saw
in the circumstance a direct endorsement of what
the poor priest had denounced.

Another discouragement was the political con-
dition. The fierce resentment of the oppressed
Irish poor sought political utterance. The leaders
were however, naturally, not of the highest class,
and political violence and short-sighted demands
united the landowning and intelligent classes in a
resistance to the peasant movement which in-

THE WEST OF IRELAND 79

eluded many reasonable demands as well as the
unreasoning violence. The condition was de-
plorable. Dr. Edgar himself described it vividly
in a letter to the Banner of Ulster. "The real
fact of the case is this: — The poor Connaught
man eats none of his own corn, none of his own
butter, pig, all go to pay his rent; and whatever
potatoes remain after the pig is fed, are the only
food, the only support of his family." He also
defended in the same letter the character of the
Connaught peasant. "It is a libel," he wrote,
" on the poor Irishman to say that he is too lazy
or too savage to seek for better food than pota-
toes. His only nourishment is potatoes because
the other products of his farm, go to his landlord,
and because potatoes are the only crop sufficiently
productive to save himself and his family from
starvation."

Around Camlin the poverty was not quite so
great as in some other districts, yet on the whole
the poverty was deep, settled and extreme. The
Mayo district Dr. Edgar in another place describes
as follows: "When distress comes on a man in
humble life here, (the north of Ireland) he has
some little store on which to draw — if not money
at least furniture, or extra clothing, which he can
place in pawn; but the Connaught man has no

8o THE WEST OF IRELAND

clothing but what he wears; and as for furniture,
you might enter house after house in Connaught,
as I have done, and find no table, no chair, no
cupboard, no bedstead, deserving the name, no
spoon, no knife, no anything, except a square
box, and a potato pot, which a pawnbroker
would not take in pawn. In fact a large propor-
tion of the houses are not fit for anything that
we would dignify with the name of furniture.
They have no chimney, no window; their floors
are fearfully damp, their roofs are often not
water-tight, and the general custom is to have
cow, pig, ass, and geese, all in the same apart-
ment with the family — all sleeping together, and
all going in and out by the same door."

Amid such scenes the work was often depress-
ing in the extreme, and in the notes and verses
of this period there is reflected at times the wear-
iness and heartsickness such poverty and blank
ignorance must produce.

The cheerful home in Camlin was a pleasure
that could only be enjoyed at intervals. The
first year and a half were spent in unceasing in-
spections of schools and preaching at stations
often widely apart, with the congregation at
Boyle always demanding steady attention. Then
study had to be kept up, and late hours became

THE WEST OF IRELAND 8i

the rule. At last health began to suffer, and the
diary begins to note the fact that bed had to be
sought earlier, and work had to be done in the
morning. Yet up to very late in life the habit of
my father was to do much of his work late at
night. The house was quiet, callers did not dis-
turb, and far on into the small hours the busy
pen kept rapid pace on the paper.

In Connaught the habit was formed of writing
for the weekly papers. Under a pen-name week
by week a poem or letter appeared in the local
county paper. And the editor of the Roscommon
and Leitrim Gazette as well as the Irish Mes-
senger soon found out that a young correspond-
ent was writing things their readers were glad to
get. Under the letter "P" or the signature
"Autos " religious poetry and devotional articles
found ready access to the columns of the local
papers. Quite independently of the venerated
Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, my father discovered
as Dr. Cuyler did what a source of power the
weekly press, religious and secular, might be
made. And all through his life he plied his pen
freely. Many times in five different places an
article would appear from his ceaseless pen in
the same week. He realized himself that many
of these had only temporary value. Again and

82 THE WEST OF IRELAND

again he refused to gather such writings into a
volume, declaring that like his sermons they were
meant for the occasion, and the better fitted they
were for the occasion, the less fitted were they
for permanent form. Of a number of such
poems one obtained a wider circulation than the
weekly in which it was published, and is char-
acteristic of the religious poetry more common
then, under the inspiration of Cowper, and many
lesser poets now forgotten, than it is to-day. It
is as follows:

THE MIGNONETTE AND THE OAK.

LINES INSCRIBED TO A MISSIONARY.
I marked a child — a pretty child

A gentle blue-eyed thing;
She sowed the scented mignonette

One sunny day in spring.
And as the tiny seed she sowed
The streams of thought, thus sweetly flowed.

" On thy dear bed the dew shall fall,

And yon bright sun shall shine.
'Twill grow and bloom and blossom then.

And it shall all be mine."
And the fair thing laughed in childish glee.
To think what harvest hers would be.

I saw a man an acorn plant,

Upon the hillside bare ;
No spreading branch, no shading rock

Send friendly shelter there.
And thus as o'er the acorn bowed
I heard him — for he thought aloud.

THE WEST OF IRELAND 83

" Frail thing ! ere glossy leaf shall grace

Thy stem or sturdy bough,
I may be laid amid the dead

As low as thou art now.
Yet shalt thou rise in rugged strength
And crown the barren heights at length."

Each had a hope — the childish heart

Looked to a summer's joy.
The manly thought, strong and mature

Looked to futurity.
Each trusted nature's genial power.
He sought a forest, she a flower.

The unceasing activity and the energy of the
young missionary had been noted, and already
many who by chance had heard him had pre-
dicted a wider range for his talents, but he him-
self was contented with his work and refused to
take any steps towards a change. When then
it became known that his name was before the
congregation of the First Church in Armagh he
took pains to make it known that this was by no
act or word of his. Then the church asked him,
as was the custom, to preach in turn with a num-
ber of others. This he refused to do. When
asked however to supply the pulpit as the only
one the church thought of, he did so, in no way
committing himself to acceptance of any call
should it come. In fact he wrote plainly, " I am
not weary of my work as a missionary — nor can

84 THE WEST OF IRELAND

I move in the direction of leaving it unless the
Providence of God seemed as plain as in leading
me hither. Now I could not regard a place in a
candidate's list such an indication of the path of
duty." Family affairs called him to the old home
in the County Armagh, hence it was natural and
easy that he should supply the pulpit for two
Sabbaths. This he did with the result that a
unanimous call was extended to him to become
the pastor of the church. The notice came on
the sixth of January, 1852, that the hearty desire
of the people was expressed in the call, and at
once steps were taken to sever the relationships
existing with the presbytery in Connaught to go
to the new field of labor.

IV. THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

A NEW YEAR'S PRAYER

BY REV. JOHN HALL, D. D., LL. D.

O God, my good desires fulfill ;

The bad do Thou restrain ;
Reveal to me Thy holy will.

And make my duty plain.

Sustain me by Thy heavenly grace,

And keep me in Thy fear ;
Help me to run the heavenly race

With Jesus ever near.

O Christ, my all-wise Prophet,

I sit down at Thy feet ;
Teach me to do the Father's will.

For heaven make me meet.

O Christ, my great High Priest,

Ascended now to heaven,
On Thine atoning work I rest.

To Thee the praise be given.

O Christ, my glorious King,

Thy law write on my heart ;
And bring me to the heavenly home

Where we shall never part.

There let me sing the song of songs ;

There let my praise be given.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

The Trinity in heaven.

For The Golden Rule, January 2, 1896.

86

IV

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

CHURCH LIFE IN ARMAGH. MARRIAGE. METHODS ^S iA
•PASTOR. MISSIONARY WORK. THE " MISSIONARY HERALD.''
FAMILY CONCERNS. TEMPERANCE AGITATION. n^EI^I^AL
EXPERIENCES. 'POLITICS ^ND THE CRIMEAN WAR. THE
NEEDS OF DUBLIN.

THE circumstances of the church life in the
new field were entirely different from those
of the missionary activity in the west of Ireland.
The First Presbyterian Church in Armagh was
second only perhaps to Mary's Abbey, Dublin, in
the councils of the Church. The personal influ-
ence of Dr. Cooke had made, indeed, his church
in Belfast a leader in all good works, but the
Armagh church had a long and honorable history
that gave it a unique place. An able and godly
ministry had preceded the vacancy of 185 1, but
various reasons had made the later years of that
ministry less effective in the country districts,
dependent still upon the Church, than it once had
been. The farmers of the so-called "town-
lands" had been in the habit of making the gal-
lery of the church their special place. This gal-
lery had suffered sorely from the physical inabil-
87

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 89

at Monkstown Castle, County Dublin, a younger
daughter of an exceptionally large family. Her
father was a Mr. Bolton, who married Miss
Carpenter, who died in comparatively early life.
Emily, who afterwards became Mrs. Hall, was
educated in Dublin at a school superintended by
an accomplished French lady. The Bolton family
travelled a good deal in France and elsewhere,
and in later years most of the members lived in
England, although still retaining homes and prop-
erty in Ireland. At a very early age Miss Emily
Bolton was married to John Irwin, Esq., J. P., a
landed proprietor in the west of Ireland, and
settled at no great distance from the home of an
older sister also married to a landlord in the
neighborhood. Mr. Irwin died after a few years
of happy married life, leaving his widow with
three boys, one of them born after his death.
Another sister of hers having married a brother
of Mr. Irwin and hving in the neighborhood, and
in the midst of a large connection of relatives,
Mrs. Irwin continued to live in the family home
which was pleasantly situated near the town of
Boyle in the county of Roscommon.

When the "famine" following what was
known as the potato failure came, multitudes of
the poor peasantry around were starving. Mrs.

90 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

Irwin and her sister-in-law looked about to give
some employment. Little could be done for the
men, although the land-steward employed as
many of them as could be well provided with
work. At that time, however, a kind of em-
broidery known as "sewed muslin work" was
being done largely in the north of Ireland.
Firms in Scotland furnished for this purpose the
material and payed for the work. Mrs. Irwin
decided on trying to introduce this work. This
she succeeded in doing, and by the aid of the
society in Belfast under the guidance of Dr.
Edgar hundreds were in this way saved and
given the means of earning an honorable wage.

It was, as we have seen, in the midst of this
activity that my father met the partner of forty-
six years of joy and sorrow. Mrs. Irwin's sym-
pathies were with the extreme evangelical
wing of the Established Church to which she be-
longed. Her loyalty to the Established Church
was much shaken however, by the way in which
the school work and the effort of the association
in Belfast were met by the narrower section of the
High Churchmen ; it was therefore an easy thing for
her to throw in her lot with the Presbyterian faith.
She did it intelligently and heartily, and faithfully
served its interests as she conceived those interests

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 91

to be identical with God's kingdom from tiiat
time on.

The wedding was a quiet one in June 15th,
1852, at the Presbyterian Church in Kingston
from the house of General Irwin her brother, and
then after a short wedding trip the united life
began in the Master's service. It was a family
circle from the beginning, for not only were the
three boys of the first marriage in the home, but
also the youngest brother James, little more than
a lad at that time, was still under his brother's
care. Even in Connaught he had largely been
with his brother.

In Armagh were developed those powers as
pastor and preacher which made the future
career so fruitful. It was the habit of the little
Belfast student circle, when members of it met
to say half-play fully to each other, "Now, preach
good sermons!" More than once my father had
occasion to emphasize the character of the con-
gregation, as one exceedingly helpful and stimu-
lating. Many of those living in the city were
thoughtful and highly educated people. On this
account the substance of the sermon had to be
such as would edify them, while the style and
manner had to be simple enough for the thought
to be grasped by busy farmers and their tired

92 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

wives, whose opportunities for enlarging their
vision were limited.

To one member of that congregation my father
felt himself deeply indebted on many accounts.
He was a physician of high character and of emi-
nent professional skill. He was more over a man
of culture, and old enough to speak in a fatherly
way to the young preacher. Profoundly attached
to his minister, his years enabled him to give many
a helpful piece of advice. This doctor in the
providence of God was the means of saving the life
of the third boy, and in gratitude for this, and many
other services, the present writer bears his name.

The need of the congregation was a closer
touch with the outlying regions dependent on the
Church. At once my father began that syste-
matic visiting which marked his ministerial life
throughout. He was in the habit of announcing
a prayer-meeting in one of these districts on a cer-
tain day and hour, having arranged with some
household for the use of their largest room. Then
he visited round about all the day, often taking his
supper at some of the houses, spoke at the prayer-
meeting, encouraged the people to attend regularly
the Sunday services, and then made his way home.

The note-books of those days are filled with
such entries as, "Visit in IVIoneypatrick and

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 93

preach same evening at house of Mr. , home

at eleven." These prayer-meetings and extra
preaching services were at first criticised as
"Methodist" and quite " un-Presbyterian," but
the results were soon seen in the gallery as well
as on the floor of the Church, and week after
week the congregations grew steadily and
quietly, but with permanent strength. In all else
my father's methods were inclined to be a little
unsystematic. He had a remarkable memory,
and could afford to trust it where others would
have used some system. In his visiting, however,
from the beginning he kept careful records and
worked with steady and persistent system.

In his later years he sometimes remarked that the
difficulty of pastoral visitation had changed. In the
Armagh days he needed tact and resource to pre-
vent his visitation being purely official ministerial
and professional. In those days it was expected
that the children should be questioned, and say
their catechism, and then the minister prayed with
the household. In addition to this he desired to
come as a friend, to share the social life and know
the real needs of those to whom he ministered. In
his later life the difficulty was the other way. He
needed tact and resource to give his visiting the min-
isterial and spiritual significance he coveted for it.

94 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

The wave of religious life that had swept over
England and Scotland reached Ireland somewhat
later, but from time to time the feeling arose of
new spiritual needs and of aroused spiritual
hunger. Such an era followed the famine. The
attempt was made in Ireland to carry the Gospel
to all classes. In this work the young preacher
took a deep interest, and the correspondence of
1853 shows how active a part he took. Public
meetings in behalf of the South of Ireland were
held. These meetings were at times stormy. In
a letter to his friend Matthew Kerr dated August
17th, 1853, he writes: "The effect of the pro-
ceedings in the South (the political outrages be-
coming more and more common at that time) on
our efforts in the North is bad. We had good
order in Armagh till last Friday night when we
were regularly mobbed here! This renders the
effort unsavory with our fashionables; but it
would never do to give violence a victory, so we
try it again next Friday." Later letters speak of
the "complete triumph of the cause" and of
orderly meetings in behalf of the work in the
south of Ireland. The relative failure of the
evangelistic efforts of Protestantism in Ireland is
due to the fact that Protestantism is identified in
the minds of the common Roman Catholic peo-

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 95

pie with an alien race and a hostile social class.
The particular meeting that was mobbed was for
the Hibernian Bible Society whose mission it was
to circulate the Bible in the English tongue among
all classes, and to carry on a work of evangeliza-
tion among the Roman Catholics. The vigorous
and aggressive Protestantism of the movement
was however tempered by the kindly sympathies
of those who were chiefly interested. Dr. Edgar
always defended the Connaught Roman Catholics
even when a lawless few were doing their worst
to bring the whole countryside into discredit.

In once urging in public speech the cause of
Connaught Dr. Edgar said, " In acting thus
kindly towards the people of Connaught, you
will only be imitating the great kindness which
the poorest among them would show you if you
were living or travelling among them. In the
midst of abject poverty and absolute destitution,
their generosity and hospitality are most affect-
ing. They make no inquiry whether you are
Protestant or Roman Catholic: it is enough for
them that you are a man and a stranger. With
them. Stranger is a holy name, and whatsoever
their house contains is at your service."

Perhaps also no Protestant in all Ireland was at
one time more popular in his way among the

96 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

Roman Catholics than Matthew Kerr, and my
father, with a deep-rooted horror of the errors as
he saw them of Rome, and with a profound per-
suasion that Protestants were ignorant of and
careless about the dangers of Romanism, yet
sought to be fair and generous in his controversy
with them, and on more than one occasion fought
their battle when he thought them being wronged.
Hence, as generally happens, in such cases, he
was in spite of his sturdy Protestantism believed
in and greatly respected by his Roman Catholic
fellow-citizens.

In pursuance of the missionary purpose so re-
cently implanted in the reinvigorated hfe of the
church in Ireland, literary matter was in demand.
Hence in 1855 my father took charge of The
Children's Missionary Herald, and carried it on
until i860, when he gave it into the hands of his
friend Matthew Kerr, that he might be free for
another literary enterprise along the same but
larger lines in Dublin. In the October number,
in 1858, was reprinted, bad spelling and all, a letter
received from one of his Connaught pupils who
had gone to America. The writer of the letter,
a mere lad when he left Ireland, sent for his
father and mother, and later for his whole family.
The letter is in part as follows: "I wonder if

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 97

you have forgotten me. 1 have been wishing to
hear or get a few lines from you. You are as
fresh upon my mind as when I left Camlin. O
the kindness you bestowed on me — the pains you
took in instructing me, when I was young and
inexperienced, if I was to see you face to face,
1 would be able to tell you how thankful I am to
you. It is often when I am wandring through
this wilderness of a country I pray that the bless-
ing of God might be with you, and if it please
God that I might see you here on earth, I will be
able to tell you how happy 1 sometimes feel, and
may the Lord grant that we may well prepare for
that hour which no man knoweth save Him
above. My dear friend, though the rowling seas
are between us, do remember me and pray for
me. ... In reguard to our living, we have as
good a living hear as the richest man in that
country. ... I kept your last letter in my
pocket till it crumbled away. If 1 mistake not
you asked me what church 1 belong to, I atach

myself to the Methodest Church in , but I

have a great liking for all Christian people."
Some twelve years later my father did visit in the
west of America the prosperous and well-to-do
man, whom he had taught as a poor half-starved
cowherd in the wilds of Connaught.

98 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

In Armagh were born all the children save one
daughter, born in Dublin, and besides the respon-
sibility of his own family there fell on the
shoulders of the eldest son the additional burden
of his younger brothers and sisters. Cheerfully
and lovingly all his life he was, as his youngest
sister testified, more of a father than a brother to
them all.

Very early the parents in dedicating their eldest
son to the ministry had desired that he should go
as a foreign missionary, when the failing health
of the father made it apparent that the eldest son
would have more than usual responsibility.
William Hall had said, " we cannot spare John,
he must take my place," and this with loving
fidelity and extraordinary wisdom for so young a
head the eldest son did even in school and col-
lege days.

In Armagh he had the advantage of being
nearer to the old home where his mother and
brothers and sisters were, an advantage not to be
despised in the days of slow and imperfect com-
munication. The journey to the General As-
sembly was in those days a solemn undertaking,
and one who had been to England was a far-
travelled man.

What widened considerably however the ho-

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 99

rizon in evangelical circles was the missionary
literature, with maps of far-off lands, and accounts
of strange races and foreign ways. It would be
interesting to know how much England's col-
onies owe to the missionary literature and mis-
sionary efforts that awakened a curiosity in the
minds of many young adventurers whose aims
in travelling were not always the same as the
missionaries who first gave the impulse to
journey forth from the native place.

In another direction my father's energies were
thrown at this time. Even in college he had be-
longed to a temperance circle, and now he flung
his influence against one of the curses of Irish
society, the excessive drinking of intoxicating
spirits. Some of the best temperance tracts of
that date are from his pen, and one or two had
an enormous circulation. This movement was
not popular. Many of the wealthiest Presbyte-
rians made money in the traffic. There was no
sentiment against the trade, and the conservative
elements saw in the position taken a reflection
upon the generation that had harmlessly indulged
in the social glass. In spite of the offense he of
necessity gave, my father continued steadily in
season and out of season to urge temperance. A
constant entry in his day-book is, "spoke at a

100 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

temperance meeting in ttie township A.," or
"urged temperance at the church of . . . ,"
and one time he notes the fact "exceeded the
due limits of an address by speaking an hour
and three-quarters on temperance." In after
days he sometimes lamented the political temper-
ance movement, and felt, as 1 understand Dr.
Theodore L. Cuyler also feels, that the original
temperance movement has been injured by the
identification of it with political prohibition.

In the autumn of 1859 my father took part in a re-
markable religious movement that was connected
with the north of Ireland specially. The religious
awakening excited attention, and after it had
gone on for some little time abuses began to be
manifest. Against these my father and others
raised their voices, as was fitting, seeing that
they had had much to do with the situation.
Yet many things took place which greatly dis-
turbed him. Never again could he hail with the
same zeal movements connected with excite-
ment, which he recognized distinctly as physical.
Indeed, 1 think, he was perhaps almost unduly
prejudiced by the experiences of that year against
similar movements later on. He wrote a letter
to the Armagh Guardian, which is especially
interesting, because it so exactly reflects his feel-

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH loi

ings all through his life. The letter was as fol-
lows:

Armagh,
2ist September, i8^g.
Dear Sir,— In the present deeply interesting state of a
portion of the people of Armagh, may I venture to suggest to
reflecting persons a few things that require to be considered ?

1. When tourists, clerical or otherwise, come to the place,
will it be wise to exhibit to them persons believed to have been
visited by the Spirit of God ? In the nature of things this can
only be done with those most likely to suffer, either by being
tempted to self-complacency, or as has occurred elsewhere, to
making a gain of godliness ? Should not intelligent persons be
satisfied with their observations at meetings, and with the in-
formation afforded them ? Who would covet a gratification at
the risk of doing mischief in such a case ?

2. Should young persons be put forward to speak in public,
because recently converted ? what principle is in the apostolic
words ( I Tim. 3:6) " not a novice, lest being lifted up with
pride, he fall into, etc. " ? Would it not be much better to give
sound scriptural instruction to these deeply interesting young
persons ?

3. Should any attention be given to dreams, trances, etc., if
they appear here ? Should they not be treated as trifles to say
the least of them, as compared with the real work of God's
Spirit ?

4. Should young people be encouraged to protracted meet-
ings especially where no minister is presiding ? Or would it
not be better to have meetings shorter and earlier, and if neces-
sary to close business places earlier to give facility to attend ?
Will not employers gain by any really good influence on the
employed ?

5. Can much good be expected from mass meetings and ex-
cursion trains ? Would not the temptation to mere ephemeral
excitement be more likely to abound on such occasions than in
the quiet enjoyment of the ordinary means of grace ? Should

102 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

any individual be encouraged to collect professedly religious
meetings, for the order and decorum of which no one is respon-
sible, while the character of a religious movement may be im-
perilled thereby ?

Reflecting people, by forming and expressing matured
opinions on these and similar topics, may discourage and put
down many things, over which Christians mourn as unhappily
attaching themselves to a real and undoubted work of God. A
deep interest in the Lord's work in Armagh induces me to
submit the above questions to readers of your paper, to whose
minds they may not otherwise have been carried. — Believe me,
faithfully yours, J. H.

With a growing family and a good many
cares, witli an ever-increasing weight of responsi-
bility in ecclesiastical matters, and a great deal
of hard drudging work, my father yet always
looked back to the days spent in Armagh as
among the most profitable and happiest of his
ministry.

In the meantime the fame as a preacher of the
young Armagh minister was spreading. In
August, 1856, he had made a short trip to Scot-
land and preached for an acquaintance in Glas-
gow. He had hardly returned to Ireland before
overtures were made to him looking towards his
removal to Scotland. But in spite of the attract-
ive nature of several such overtures then, as also
later in his career, he felt that Scotland was well
provided for, and that his duty lay elsewhere.

In spite of the heavy duties of the Armagh

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 103

pastorate outside interests were not neglected.
Nearly every season a tour was made in the in-
terests of the Deaf and Dumb Institution of
Ulster. The Hibernian Bible Society had also a
claim on his time, and he was frequently called
upon to plead its claims elsewhere than in his
own church. To the militia of Armagh he also
acted as chaplain, and a list of the Protestants
was carefully kept by him, and they were visited
as regularly as his parishioners.

The prayers of the years 1855 to 1857 abound
with references to England's sacrifices in the
Crimea and the Indian Mutiny. In those days
it was my father's habit to write prayers which
either opened or closed the sermon, and several
longer prayers exist which he had written out in
full. In these the soldiers fighting under distant
skies were specially remembered, for the eldest
stepson had gone as a young oificer to learn the
art of war. This step was taken just in time to
see the closing scenes of the Indian Mutiny
1857-1858, and as a mother's heart followed the
news of England's struggle, earnest prayers for
the soldier's safety were mingled with the thanks-
givings over tidings of success. Then as always
Irish blood was flowing freely for the exten-
sion and preservation of the Empire, and the

104 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

North contributed her share to the armies sent
abroad.

It was characteristic then as throughout the life
of my father that he was not strongly biassed
politically. Naturally belonging to the liberal
party, he yet took no active part in the political
turmoil of those days, and this in spite of the fact
that nearly all ministers of influence were then
more or less inclined to political activity. Dr.
Cooke had been as successful as a politician as he
had been as a preacher, and many undertook to
imitate his political methods without his judg-
ment or his ability. Along this line my father
never seems to have been tempted. Neither at
this time nor later in life did he closely identify
himself with any political party, and although
great national interests, such as national educa-
tion, temperance reform, industrial education
called out his best energies, yet it was always
distinctly as a non-partisan liberal.

Particularly did he see in the advance of Pres-
byterianism the highest good of Ireland. Almost
anxiously does he canvass the situation in the
correspondence of 1857 and 1858. The reason of
this anxiety was not far to seek. The splendid
religious impulse that had given the Irish Presby-
terian Church some of her best leaders was in

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 105

danger apparently of giving way to a satisfied re-
action. The older men were either passing
away, or were no longer in touch with new
wants constantly arising on the horizon. The
conditions, also, in Ireland had materially changed.
The loss of upwards of two millions of her pop-
ulation between 1846 and 1856 had made Ireland
in many respects a different country. The North
actually prospered under the changed conditions,
for famine hardly touched her, and her shipping
trade and cattle export were greatly improved.
At the same time the changed conditions affected
unfavorably — at least such was the judgment of
many at the time — the higher interests. Particu-
larly in Dublin did the leading men feel the diffi-
culty of the situation. The correspondence
between Dr. Hamilton Magee and his friends
disclose some of the difficulties under which the
religious work of the Church was done. At this
time the leading Presbyterian Church in Dublin
was called Scotts church, Mary's Abbey. Dr.
William B. Kirkpatrick was the honored and
scholarly minister. He however felt, together
with others, that his strength was not equal to
the holding of the congregation, and at the same
time doing the work expected of the minister of
such a church outside.

io6 THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH

Dr. Kirkpatrick was a student rather than a
man of affairs and under these circumstances he
and the congregation began to look about for one
who should become with him a fellow-minister
in the work of the Church.

The choice fell at once upon the Armagh min-
ister. Yet the grave question arose how any
change could be made to seem right under the
existing conditions. Financially such a charge
in Dublin had no attractions, as the First Armagh
was abundantly able and willing to provide faith-
fully for its minister, and a divided responsibility
can never seem as hopeful as where one is in the
definite leadership. The situation was such
however that the call was extended, and great in-
fluence was brought to bear upon my father to
cause him to go to Dublin for the sake of the
Church at large. The leaders in Belfast also took
this view of the case, and gave their help in per-
suading the Church at Armagh of the wisdom of
the change.

It was in many ways a sore trial to the whole
family. Armagh had become dear to both hus-
band and wife as the birthplace of their children.
The old manse was a real home ; no kinder peo-
ple did they ever know than the Armagh friends
of my parent's first ministry ; and in some ways

THE MINISTRY IN ARMAGH 107

it was even a pecuniary sacrifice to accept tlie
place. At tile same time my father felt tliat the
united judgments of so many demanded from
him an affirmative decision, and with heavy heart
he said at last, " Yes " to the invitation to go to
Mary's Abbey. The birth of the youngest son in
September, 1858, made the removal of the family
only possible in October, but a few weeks be-
fore that definite leave was taken of the kind and
prosperous congregation who felt sorely the loss
of one they had come to tenderly love. The
future relationships between the Church and the
former pastor remained ever most tender, and
it was always with warm enthusiasm that the
congregation was spoken of in the family circle.

V. THE MINISTRY IN MARY'S ABBEY-
DUBLIN

THE LORD'S PRAYER

Father ! who hast in heaven Thy seat,
All hallow'd be Thy name so great !
Soon may Thy peaceful kingdom come !
Thy will on all the earth be done,
In cheerfulness and holy love
As angels serve in heaven above.
Bestow upon us what is good,
And grant each day our daily food.
As we forgive them who have sinned
May we ourselves forgiveness find.
Rough trials' paths let us not tread,
And from all evil shield our head.
For kingdom, power and praise to Thee
Belong to all eternity.
July, 1847. ]■ H. (Signed) "Autos."

V

THE MINISTRY IN MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN

MARY'S ^BBEY. IRISH EDUCATION. NATIONAL SCHOOLS.
THE QUEEN'S COMMISSIONERSHIP. THE RUTLAND SQUARE
CHURCH. VACATIONS. THE ''EVANGELICAL WITNESS."
DISESTABLISHMENT tAND THE MODERATORSHIP. DELEGATE
TO ^AMERICA.

THE call of the congregation of Mary's Abbey
is dated the 28th of June, 1838, and the
arrangement included a division of the preaching
labors between Dr. Kirkpatrick and the new as-
sociate minister. The pastoral and other work
was to be divided as best suited both ministers,
and the division of labor aimed at giving both
incumbents time for work outside the immediate
church, Dr. Kirkpatrick being engaged in literary
and particularly apologetic and polemic theology,
while the younger strength was engaged in out-
side work with reference to the Church as a
whole. No formal arrangement was made. The
call was extended as the usual call to a minister
from the congregation, no reference being even
made to the relations to Dr. Kirkpatrick. In
spite of the strenuous efforts of the two men,
whose warm friendship lasted through the life-

112 THE MINISTRY IN

time of Dr. Kirkpatrick, the arrangement had
many disadvantages, and did not work well.
With men less absorbed in the great interests in-
volved, and in even slight degree thinking of
themselves the plan would not have worked at
all. Scholarly, thoughtful and refined as were
the sermons of the older preacher, they lacked
the popular clearness, and the warmth that made
the younger man's ministrations acceptable to a
much larger number. Dr. Kirkpatrick rejoiced
in the success of the new voice, but it was not
in his power to prevent unkind things being said
by mischief-makers who would have gladly seen
trouble between the two friends. The personal
relations were however too sincere and too
genuine to be thus disturbed. On Saturday
nights they met together for prayer and study, and
many times my father has spoken to me gratefully
of the spiritual and intellectual stimulus gained
in those meetings together. At the same time the
experiment was one he never desired to try again.
Mary's Abbey filled up rapidly, and in spite of
a location altogether unfavorable, and a building
far from meeting the needs of the congregation,
the prosperity was apparent and real. In Dublin
the same restless energy and power of unceasing
work was displayed that had marked the pastorate

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 113

in Armagh. As chaplain to Mountjoy Female
Prison a great variety of human wants and woes
had to be met and mastered. The weeks were
few in which some article, tract or open letter
did not appear. The Children's Missionary
Herald was given up in i860, but only to make
possible the editing of the Evangelical Witness,
a monthly religious paper started shortly after,
and which my father continued to edit until he
left Dublin. To the outside activities of the
church he devoted now a great deal of time.
The evangelization of the West lay on his heart;
the institutions for the orphans and the deaf and
blind needed sermons and addresses to which he
devoted much labor going from place to place
until his voice and tall figure crowned by deep
black hair was familiar in every little town in the
north and middle west of Ireland, and his name was
now known to Protestants all over the country.

He was especially now sought as a temperance
advocate. It was at that time neither usual nor
popular for all clergymen to be pronouncedly on
the side of temperance. Many a kindly warning
did my father receive of the "injudicious " tem-
perance agitation to which he was addicted.
This was more especially the case because pow-
erful Presbyterian interests were directly or in-

114 THE MINISTRY IN

directly engaged in the traffic. To tiie great
credit of those interests be it said that in no
quarters were my father's outspoken statements
of his convictions more generously received.
Those whom timid counsellors feared he would
offend, admired him for his courage and faithful-
ness, even where they were not convinced by his
arguments or won by his persuasions, and be-
came his lifelong friends.

Among the many open questions in Ireland
remains still that of education. The difficulty is
one of ideals. The Roman Catholic Church cannot
be content with anything less than full control,
and this means, in the experience of the Protes-
tant elements a dangerous popular ignorance. At
the same time the Protestants are themselves di-
vided. The Episcopal Church has an educational
ideal not shared by the Presbyterians. The ques-
tions at issue were even more sharply debated
before the disestablishment of the Church in Ire-
land in 1869-1871.^ It was as early as 1831 that
as a result of the work of an educational inquiry a
Board of National Education was established,
with commissioners from various faiths.^

1 The bill was passed by Mr. Gladstone, the 26th of July, and
took effect on Jan. ist, 1871.

5 The first religious census in Ireland was taken in 1834, and
according to it the population was divided as follows :

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 115

The Board was at once furiously attacked by
the Orange and extreme Episcopalian (Church of
Ireland) interests. This was a most happy prov-
idence, for this fact drew temporarily to the
Board's aid the Roman Catholic sympathy. In
accordance with directions from the government
the education was to be wholly non-sectarian,

The Established Church . . . 852,064 '

Roman Catholics 6,427,712

Presbyterians 642,356

Other Protestant Dissenters . . 21,808

7.943.940

This census was probably grossly inaccurate. Dr. Killen im-
pugns it in Reid's history of the Presbyterian Church as mis-
representing the proportions (cf. vol. Ill, page 499, Ed. 1853).
But in the writer's opinion, it also grossly exaggerates the total
population, and is untrustworthy as giving data for computation of
the number in Ireland. In 1871 an accurate census was taken
with the following results :

Episcopalians 683,295

Presbyterians 503,461

Methodists 41,815

Independents 4,485

Baptists 4,643

Society of Friends 3.834

Roman Catholics 4,141,933

Thus Protestantism had in 1871, 1,260,568 and Roman Cathol-
icism about four times that number. Of course famine and
emigration weakened both Protestantism and Roman Catholi-
cism, but Roman Catholicism suffered far more than Protestant-
ism.

ii6 THE MINISTRY IN

the reading of the Scripture was not to be enforced
on unwilling children, but in accordance with the
wishes of parents, religious teachers of various
faiths were to have opportunity given them for
the instruction in religion as favored by the
parents.

As up to this time Episcopal parish ministers
had had a most offensive power of interference
with schools, established and maintained by
private means in large part, and wholly attended
by those of another faith, the extreme party in
the Church resented fiercely the establishment of
the Commission. It was, in fact, the beginning
of the end. Step by step the power of the Es-
tablished Church was curtailed until at last dis-
establishment was an accomplished fact. One of
the first commissioners appointed had been the
scholarly and able minister of Mary's Abbey,
Dublin, the Rev. Mr. Carlile. He was both
popular and extremely orthodox, as that term was
then used, yet he was very nearly subjected to
churchly discipline for accepting the position.
Only the fact of his very influential position, and
that there were hopes — afterwards realized — that
he would succeed in changing the plan of the
Board of Education, saved his ecclesiastical life.
For, alas, many Presbyterians were completely

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 117

blind to the great step in advance such national
education really was. For them the cry "God-
less" and "irreligious" education had far too
much weight.

The attitude of Dr. H. Cooke — the "Cock of
the North " was also a serious embarrassment.
Dr. Cooke was a Conservative by birth, educa-
tion and instinct. The existing state of things
was for him d priori the right state of things.
His policy had been to work with the Established
Church, and he had been a good deal petted by
the Tory and High Church elements. To him
Trinity College, Dublin had given a degree, an
almost revolutionary action in those days. He
supported always the candidates set up by the
Tory and landlord interests, so that Presbyterian
and Liberal representation was at that time im-
possible. Dr. Cooke opposed disestablishment,
and actually in 1868 the Presbyterian Church ex-
pressed modified disapproval of Mr. Gladstone's
bill. He did not like the growing liberal party in
the Presbyterian Church, and saw in National
Board Schools a menace to the distinctively relig-
ious education which was his ideal. In 1839
there was, it is true, a compromise made between
the Synod of the Presbyterian Church and the
Government Board, but friction was not wholly

ii8 THE MINISTRY IN

overcome. The difficulties of national educa-
tion were then enormously increased when
after 1848 the Roman Catholic Church reversed
its policy and denounced in unmeasured terms
the whole scheme.

In 1 84 1 two Synods of the Presbyterian faith
came together, and formed the General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. From that
time on Presbyterian Liberalism began to work
itself free from the leadership of Tory Protestant-
ism. Yet the change was a gradual one. This
was in part in deference to Dr. Cooke. The
struggle over national education was still going
on in 1858 when my father went to Dublin. As
has been remarked he was no politician, yet he
was a Liberal, and a rather pronounced Liberal on
the education question. The older men looked
to the coming younger man with much of hope.
The stalwart and evangelical orthodoxy of the
new voice that was being heard over all Ireland
greatly encouraged those who dreaded the dead-
ness of a past era. Unfortunately however the
older orthodoxy was lukewarm in the matter of
national education and was inclined to join hands
with Tory and Orange extremes in opposition.
The experience in the west of Ireland had greatly
interested my father in education. He saw in it

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 119

the one hope of the population. He did not
underrate religious education, but he did not see
how there could by any chance be "an Episco-
palian spelling," and a " Presbyterian table of
multiplication." He flung himself boldly on the
side of national unsectarian education. Then
when in i860, in accordance with the express
wish of the Presbyterian church for a third Pres-
byterian commissioner the place was offered to
my father; he at once accepted, and became
queen's commissioner of national education. The
letter asking my father to join the board is as fol-
lows:

Irish Office,
ig Nov. i8bo.
Dear Sir:

When a deputation of the Presbyterian church did me
the honor to call upon me on the subject of the addition, which
it was proposed to make, to the board of education, one of the
principal objects which they had in view was to obtain the ad-
dition of a third Presbyterian commissioner.

The Lord Lieutenant authorizes me to acquaint you, in his
name as well as in my own, that the government are disposed
to accede to their request and I beg to propose to you to join
the board, and give to it the sanction of your name and your
attention.

I remain, dear sir,

faithfully yours
Rev. John Hall. Edward Caldwell.

For this step some who never openly attacked
him never really forgave him. Moreover his

I20 THE MINISTRY IN

vigorous defense of his position savored far too
much of advanced radical views to suit those
who were still in the armor put on for past
conflicts. Particularly offensive to some was a
"Very Short Catechism for Such as be of
Weaker Capacity" which my father wrote at
this time. It is as follows:

A VERY SHORT CATECHISM FOR

SUCH AS BE OF WEAKER CAPACITY.

A. Is it true that the Bible is shut out of the
Irish National Schools ?

B. No. It is in every school, where the man-
agers wish it, and is read in many hundreds of
them.

A. But that is before or after school hours
when of course no child would be silly enough
to come ?

B. Well you may try the thing by experi-
ment, and in the Belfast Model School, e. g., or
the Dublin Model School you can examine a class
and compare the answering with that of any
public Protestant school for the sons of the
gentry, and you will find the Model School class
the better taught of the two, which could hardly
be the case if the children did not come.

A. Still it is not in school hours ?

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 121

B. What do you call school hours ?

A. Well from 10 a. m. until 3 p. m. we com-
monly call school hours.

B. Just so. Then if you manage a school and
fix the hours from ten to eleven for Scripture
reading, would you say the Scriptures are not
used in school hours ?

A. Certainly not. I should be setting apart
that portion of the school hours for Scripture, as
I should set apart the next hour for spelling, or
writing.

B. Which is exactly the course pursued in the
national schools. You have only to define be-
forehand the time you mean to employ in this
way, and all the board requires is that there be
adequate time for secular instruction.

A. But Mr. Whiteside and others tell us every
year that the Bible is shut out during school
hours. Is not that very odd ?

B. Very.

A. How do you account for it ?

B. Did I promise to account for it ? I do not
attempt it.

A. But they must have some show of argu-
ment for this assertion >

B. Suppose 1 order that geography shall be
taught in my school from two till three only, would

122 THE MINISTRY IN

it be fair or true to say it is not taught in sciiool
liours ?

A. Surely not.

B. Weil suppose in most schools the parents
did not wish mathematics to be learned by their
children, would it be fair to say that the board
excludes mathematics ?

A. No. It is the parents who effect the ex-
clusion. They have only to ask for them 1 sup-
pose, and the board will give every facility for
their gratification.

B. Quite so. And just so with the Scriptures.

A. But it is very wrong of parents not to ask
for the Scriptures.

B. Of course it is. What shall we do with
them then ? Tell them they cannot have read-
ing, writing and arithmetic, without taking the
Bible too?

A. No, not exactly that. It would be too like
Spain which won't give men civil rights, or even
sepulchral honors, unless he will take the Catho-
lic religion.

B. Exactly, and we have got past that, at least
since 1829. We shall never come to offer men
gas, water, police-protection, civil employment,
education scholastic or collegiate, on the inevita-
ble condition of their accepting our religious

DR. JOHN HALL AT THE AGE OF THIRTY

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 123

books and teaching. In accordance with the
genius of the free Protestantism of these kingdoms
we have ceased to manufacture hypocrites and
infidels in this fashion. Then what would you
do?

A. I would leave the people free to read the
Bible.

B. A very unassailable truism that. What do
you mean by " free " ? Do you mean you would
put Bibles in every school, if the children liked
to have them without reference to the parents'
wishes ? Then you would say to the promoters
of a school, Gentlemen we give you a grant of
books and salary, on condition this shelf of
Bibles is in a conspicuous place in the school for
every child that likes. Would you do that?

A. That is not exactly what 1 mean.

B. I should think not. Try the converse of
it, and imagine the Roman Catholic Emperor of
France giving aid to Protestant schools, only on
condition that each school have a supply of
Roman Catholic volumes. We should call that
a mild form of intolerance, and should we not ?
But pray explain yourself — what do you mean by
"free"?

A. Well 1 don't think a parent has a right to
keep the scriptures from his child.

124 THE MINISTRY IN

B. Another impregnable position. He has not
as regards God. But he has as regards you and
me. He has no right to be envious, or covetous,
to neglect praise and prayers as regards God,
but he has as regards you and me. Would you
think of Kerry, where there is not a Protestant
school within five miles and the little Protestant
is secured the advantage of a good secular edu-
cation and the priest or the teacher cannot inter-
fere with his faith unless by his parents' consent ?

A. Oh ! I admit there are difficulties, but the
fact is Romanism is getting it all its own way
ever since 1829.

B. Well now consider — what has most weak-
ened Protestantism since that time ? Has it been
concession to Romanists by "Liberals" or ap-
proximation to Romanism by high-flying Prot-
estants ? Is Protestantism more or less alive and
energetic now than 1829? And would it be
stronger now, had it retained legal ascendency ?
Is there any way in which you can so weaken
the hands of an enemy, and strengthen your
own, as by doing him in all things the justice you
claim for yourself ?

A. Yes, but should a parent have a right to
keep his child from reading the Bible ?

B. Well try the other side of the case. Your

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 125

little Dickey who has reached the mature age of
nine and a half having the advantage of a devout
Roman Catholic nurse gets fond of the wor-
ship she practices, thinks the pictures fine, the
music beautiful and the priest imposing, and an-
nounces to you some fine morning his intention
of commencing the study of Alban Butler's
" Lives of the Saints "and begs you to procure him
the "Key of Heaven" and the "Path to Para-
dise." What would you do?

A. Of course I would insist on teaching him,
or having him taught the truth, till he came to
years of discretion.

B. Precisely; and for conceding exactly this
to Roman Catholic parents, the board is annually
abused and the abettors of it stigmatized by men
who preach charity and counsel trustfulness as
belonging to Protestantism. How could the gov-
ernment adopt any other principle in schools than
British law follows in all other matters ? Are
the boys and girls to be constituted judges of
their parents' capacity and right to rule ? Fancy
Dickey telling you at breakfast, " Papa, you are
incapable of being my governor, according to
Lord Eldon and Mr. Whiteside, for you have de-
nied the faith! " The thing is too ridiculous.

A. But the government cannot — well at least

126 THE MINISTRY IN

the government is not a safe guide on this solemn
matter.

B. Indeed. You can trust the government to
manage the national church, but not the national
school. The government can decide whether
your bishop shall be evangelical or otherwise,
and in multitudes of cases whether the sermon
you hear shall be good or bad, but you will not
trust the government to decide on the schools of
the country. Either you should acquiesce here
or begin reform farther back.

A. I admit the difficulty. But it is very
hard, is it not, that a Protestant clergyman
must refrain from teaching the truth to his
little parishioners at school, unless their parents
wish it?

B. Try the rule the other way then. Is it not
very hard that M. the cure cannot teach his little
parishioners the Romist doctrine in France unless
their parents wish it? Don't we applaud this as
toleration in France ?

The importance of this position taken by my
father in determining his future career justifies
the insertion here of a condensation of an article
which was one of his last and clearest utterances
on this subject. It was a defense of the system

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 127

of national education in Ireland and was headed,
" What is ' Godless ' Education ? "

" ' Godless' is not a complimentary adjective.
Even the man whom it accurately describes does
not wish it applied to him. A ' godless '
'wife,' a 'godless' 'community,' are undesir-
able associations. To fasten the term to man 'or
thing is to raise a strong prejudice against that
man or that thing. One may be, by common
consent, a practical atheist and yet unwilling to
appropriate this reproachful epithet.

"Rome has tried to fasten the epithet, 'god-
less,' on all education that she does not direct,
and to raise a prejudice against it. A true and
strong human instinct demands that education
should take account of God, and revolts from any
that ignores Him. It is clever, therefore, if it
were only also honest, to stigmatize any educa-
tion which the Church does not direct as godless.

sp 5f; ijc ip 2^ ^

"Now, let us see. Is this the ground of her
complaint ? The British Government set up a
system of schools and colleges where the best
available teachers should give all denominations
secular learning in common; where, at separate
hours and in separate places, the clergy or other
religious teachers approved by the parents should

128 THE MINISTRY IN

come and teach each his own co-religionists as
much of his religion as they pleased. The Epis-
copalian can then have Bible and prayer-book,
the Roman Catholic his catechism and prayer-
books, or any religious books he will, and the
Presbyterian his Bible and Shorter Catechism.
The only two rules are that no one shall be de-
nied secular education on religious grounds, and
no one shall be forced to learn tenets opposed to
his own religion. But each denomination may
make its own youth as 'godly' as it can. This
seems fair and unobjectionable all round. But
this was the very system that had the term ' god-
less' applied to it, and which is still denounced
and disliked by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics,
though the laity have shown their estimate of its
value to their children.

"On this plan, under a Board of equal numbers
of Roman Catholic and Protestant noblemen and
gentlemen, the British House of Commons is ex-
pending nearly |2,ooo,ooo a year in Ireland, but
it is in continual practical war with the ecclesias-
tics, who clamor, under every variety of plea,
for a separate allowance of money — to be laid
out by themselves. That the high officers, the
inspectors, the managers of the training schools,
are appointed with due regard to denominational

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 129

representation, is nothing; that the books have
everything offensive to any denomination ex-
cluded, is nothing; that history is excluded be-
cause history is hard to teach without touching
religion, is nothing; that the Roman Catholic
priest appoints the teacher, superintends him, and
can dismiss him — all this is nothing; — the system
is under condemnation, and the cry from 'the
Church ' is for a 'separate grant.'

******

" We doubt if any government ever made a
more honest effort to educate a nation than that
which is conferring inestimable blessings on
Ireland, and no one thing has excited deeper re-
gret among all true and intelligent lovers of that
land and its people — among whom the writer
claims a place — than the persistent Papal opposi-
tion which has retarded, though it has not
crushed, the educational advancement of the
people.

" It is idle to allege that infidelity springs out of
all education which 'the Church' does not
direct. Romish countries have as many infidels
as Protestant. As many people— proportionally
—in Spain, France, and Italy, disregard God as
offered by Roman Catholic teaching, as may be
found in Protestant lands disregarding God as

130 THE MINISTRY IN

Protestantism worships Him. Tliis fact no
one can deny. It was not Protestantism that
inoculated France with infidehty.

" It is nothing to the point to parade the old
argument that as the oldest colleges, like Oxford,
were founded by Roman Catholics, therefore, the
system must be favorable to learning. It was
not for popular education they were erected, but
for the education of the clergy and such as could
afford to pay well for education. Nor can the
Church claim much honor for originating these.
The greatest friend of education, for many ages,
was Charlemagne, who, by imperial enactment,
ordained that bishops should erect schools near
their churches and that monks should have them
in their monasteries. How much external power
is needed to stimulate Romish ecclesiastics in this
direction, might be inferred from the fact that
the more bishops and monks in any country, as
a rule, the worse educated are the people. On
the other hand, nowhere are the masses of Ro-
man Catholic people so well educated as where
they live among Protestants and under Protestant
institutions.

" Roman Catholics themselves have an interest
in this question. They have derived immense
benefit from the common schools, and could not

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 131

gain anything — if all history is not a cheat — from
their transfer, in any greater measure, to the
Church. The whole community would be a
loser, for it is for the public good that the people
of different kindreds and tongues peopling this
fair and broad land should coalesce and become
one; and, if any denomination has reason to
think its youth less instructed in religion than is
fit, surely patriotic and candid men can find
means to supplement the existing system. It is
poor policy to pull down a good house for the
sake of putting in an additional window."

This shows the pronouncedly liberal position
taken in days when religious toleration had been
too much the monopoly of Quakers and Unita-
rians. In fact the hearty support that the Unita-
rians had given to the national education plans
of the government had formed one reason for
the suspicion in some Presbyterian quarters.
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has long
since begun to realize how important a step was
taken at that time, and is also slowly awakening
to the fact that larger views must be taken of
Protestant opportunity, and Protestant inspira-
tions.

The cry was raised that the Presbyterian
Liberals were working hand in hand with the

132 THE MINISTRY IN

" papists," and that they were destructive radicals
etc., etc. Against these charges my father wrote
sharply and clearly, and did much to clear the air
and define the issues at stake. Rational and pru-
dent as seem his counsels now, in those days
they excited the bitterest feelings on the part of
some of his natural friends and allies, the theolog-
ically conservative. He was accused of " trimm-
ing," "working with both parties," and because
he realized that a divided Protestantism meant
permanent disability he was accused of seeking
peace at the price of "convictions " as some dig-
nified their poor little narrow prejudices.

At last my father came out with a definite at-
tack on the Tory tactics. In a rather long article
reviewing the situation, he asked unpleasant
questions about the real meaning of Tory com-
plaints against the national schools. The article
was regarded as an attack upon the long time
practice of acting as a tail to the Tory kite in the
supposed interests of Protestantism, and more
particularly as the article took definite issue with
the Orange Lodge and denounced its petty
criticisms of Protestantism's enlarging horizon.
He was then bitterly attacked, these political at-
tacks did not weaken my father's position as a
preacher.

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 133

The "common people heard him gladly" and
crowded congregations made Mary's Abbey al-
together too small and too unimportant a build-
ing for the uses of the church. It was very
earnestly desired to have Presbyterianism prop-
erly represented in Dublin. In fact the impor-
tance of this was felt on every hand. As long as
Presbyterianism was a local issue concerning only
Belfast it could not do its work or command the
support needed in spreading the gospel. The
congregation did not feel, however, strong
enough to undertake the raising of a new
building. Just at this time Mr. Alexander
Findlater came forward and offered to put up
the building, if the congregation would secure a
suitable site. This was done by buying a corner
on Rutland Square where the building now stands.
The following letter explains the generous con-
ditions of the gift made at a most opportune
time in the history of Dublin Presbyterianism.

Alexander Findlater &> Co.,

30 Upper Sackville St.,
Dublin, 30 Jan'y, 1862,
The Rev. John Hall,

My dear Sir ; — I am glad that the ground for the new
Presbyterian Church is secured, and as the congregation of
Mary's Abbey have thus done their part of the work, I think it
right to tell you that I am now prepared to perform mine. I
had at first intended to have so far interfered in the proposed

134 THE MINISTRY IN

building as to employ the architect and approve of the plans,
and then to have left the matter in the hands of the congrega-
tion, but on consideration I have decided on refraining entirely
from all personal interference in the work beyond the con-
tributing the funds, and the only authority I ask to exercise is
the nomination of a committee to whom I will delegate the
entire control of the business, and at whose disposal I will
place the funds as they may be required.

I believe that in my first communication with you, I ex-
pressed my readiness to give ;£^6,ooo to ;^7,ooo. To remove all
uncertainty on that subject, I now beg to say, that I will give if
required ;^8,ooo, and the only stipulation on which I will in-
sist in return is that the ground and building shall be given up
perfectly free of debt, so that the congregation shall be able to
support their ministry liberally.

Although the proposed church is intended primarily for the
congregation of Mary's Abbey, yet my idea has been, (in
which I believe the Presbyterian public concur) that it should
be adapted for meetings of the General Assembly, and should
in all respects by its architectural appearance, its position and
internal accommodations, be a building worthy of the Presby-
terian Body in the Metropolis, and therefore I think that the
committee for carrying out these views, should not be composed
exclusively of members of Mary's Abbey congregation,
although I am willing that they should form the majority.

I propose on the whole that the committee shall consist of
five, namely, yourself as chairman (on which you will excuse
me saying I must insist) Mr. Drury, Dr. Denham, Mr. Todd
and Mr. Geo. Blood, and I will be happy to give you a room
at 30 Sackville street as long as you may find it convenient to
meet there. My dear sir,

Yours very truly,

Alex. Findlater.

The fact that Mr. Findlater was the leading wine
and spirit merchant in Dublin caused some com-

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 135

merit, as he was one whom my father's temper-
ance agitation it was feared might antagonize.
And it is needless to remark that the temperance
agitation continued unabated.

The new building was entered in 1864 with ap-
propriate services, and a great burden of new
pastoral care came upon the ministry. Dublin
was growing in all directions although not very
rapidly and the congregation came from great
distances. It was my father's habit to start out,
going from house to house, where parishioners
lived until he had reached the outmost limit,
when he would often take an outside car home,
or reversing the process he would select some
farthest point and work his way back to the city.

The first house was in No. 45 Eccles street,
and afterward in No. 11 of the same street.
From the rear windows of the last house the
younger children many times watched the road
along which the father might come, often bring-
ing a few "sweeties," by which name candy was
known in Ireland, for the comfort and delectation
of the little ones.

Many times in later life the remembrance of a
large and well-kept garden in Dublin was a
pleasure to my father. The head gardener of the
Vice-regal Lodge was an old friend and insisted

136 THE MINISTRY IN

upon assuming the charge of this garden.
Flowers, and fruits, a dove-cot and a greenhouse
made it an ideal place for the children, who were
encouraged to cultivate little plots of ground for
themselves. Skilled gardeners came regularly
and watched over the fruits and flowers; from
them the children obtained plants and flower-
shoots as well as directions as to how these
should be cared.

Often in later years my father sighed for a
sight of green from his study window. Once
he wrote while on a visit to Ireland:

" Yes, this is my native land — these are my
native fields. In New York, my eyes are often
hungry for something higher than the top of a
warehouse, or hotel, or church-spire, and some-
thing more simple and varied than brown stone
cut into fantastic shapes. Here they are ' satisfied
with seeing.' Oh ! this delicious green — all
green, yet not all the same green, for there is one
green of the oats, and another of the grass, and
another of the hedges, and another of the trees,
and another of the flax, and over all 'the lark
sings loud and high.' 1 now find one good thing
has to Ireland come through our Fenian friends;
and 1 cheerfully acknowledge it. The stir they
made led to the 'proclaiming' of wide districts;

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 137

and this rendered the possession and carrying of
fire-arms more difficult; and this led to the
diminution of 'gunning,' or 'fowling,' as it is in
the vernacular of Ulster; and this led to the in-
crease of birds, the solemn crow, the chattering
daw, the long-tailed magpie, with his piebald
coat and pert manner, and the dear old plain-
coated thrush. Burns' 'mavis,' and the equally
mellow-voiced blackbird. And here in every
hedge is the robin, not the great able-bodied
robin of America, made on the scale of the coun-
try, but the true robin, no bigger than the spar-
row — the very robin that covered up the babes in
the wood with dry leaves, and then sung a
funeral dirge over them. Of course no one but
a brute would shoot him, in Ireland, where they
know the true history of his red breast; how he
pitied the world's Redeemer on the cross and
tried in vain to pull away the thorns from his
brow, and one of them pricked his own bosom
and the blood came out, and the Redeemer
marked the well-meant effort of the little bird,
and through His benediction the blood stain be-
came a glory on his breast forever."

But a little plot of garden such as almost every
poorest householder in Dublin may cherish is in
New York's wilderness of stone and brick such

138 THE MINISTRY IN

a luxury as even multi-millionaires cannot often
permit themselves.

The summer vacations were variously spent.
One of the simple pleasures of my father's
younger days was a walking trip in Wales.
With light luggage, and living on the simple fare
of the kindly Welsh people he walked all over
the northern and southern parts of Wales, and
retained to the end of his life a great admiration,
and deep regard for the Welsh people. A little
Erse which he had picked up in Connaught helped
him to make his wants known where only the
Welsh tongue was spoken. He also visited
with my mother and a dear friend the principal
continental cities, travelling in France and Italy
as well as Switzerland. The vacations were
short, but in successive trips he covered in this
way a good deal of ground.

The Dublin ministry had many joys as well as
the usual trials. The last addition to the family
circle was a little girl born in Dublin, and a great
delight to the parents in the midst of so many
boys. Warm friends and tender life-attach-
ments were here formed. Moreover the in-
fluence of the voice in the pulpit was greatly
supplemented by the writings in the Evangelical
Witness, already mentioned as founded by my

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 139

father in the years when most his hands seemed
full with a new church building in prospect. It
was a difficult undertaking. Every question in
Ireland at that time was political. Moreover the
divisions among the Presbyterians was pro-
nounced. The aim of the Evangelical Witness
was to write news of different political convic-
tions on the basis of an honest evangehcal Prot-
estantism. My father was as we have seen
himself a pronounced Liberal, but he was no
politician either secular or ecclesiastical. To him
the success of evangelical orthodoxy was the
supreme end. He sought to interest men of all
shades of political and ecclesiastical opinion.
Hence he often gave offense to extremists on
both sides. As Thomas Macnight, so long an
editor of a foremost Liberal paper in Belfast has
written of those days, "I repeat, therefore, that
to be a Liberal in Ulster at that time (1866) was
a very different thing from being a Liberal in
Great Britain. It meant a great deal more; it
meant often pecuniary loss, loss of municipal and
Parliamentary honors, loss even of ordinary
social courtesies from the great Ulster noblemen
and their families, whose names at least were as-
sociated with the old ascendency." But Liberal-
ism was making steady headway among the

140 THE MINISTRY IN

younger men. Dr. Cooke saw it and felt it as an
almost personal grievance. In 1866 a movement
was set on foot to mark the real union of the
two wings by electing a Liberal to the moderator-
ship of the General Assembly. Already, how-
ever, disestablishment was in the air. Strenuous
efforts were made to enlist the Presbyterian
Church on the side of the establishment. In
those days all Presbyterian ministers received the
so called Regium Donum a small sum "given"
as a solace to the "dissenting meeting-houses."
On the basis of this gracious favor vast efforts
were made to hold the Presbyterian Assembly
true to the principle of a "God-fearing state."
It would never do, therefore, to have a Liberal
elected to the moderatorship. The editor of the
Evangelical Witness, and the man who had at
last given Dublin a worthy Presbyterian church,
and made Presbyterianism known and respected
as something more than the Ulster tail to the
Orange kite, was the natural candidate. It was
quite impossible to impeach the orthodoxy or
spiritual experience of my father, but he had
somehow to be gotten rid of in an honorable
and yet effective way. This way was easily
found. He was made a delegate to the Assem-
blies' meeting in the United States of America.

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 141

Dr. J. C. Johnston (Dublin) reports' a reply said
to have been made at this time by my father.
Some one said to him "I thought you were to
have been moderator?" "My brethren have
transported me," was the half-humorous re-
joinder. So transported he was, adds Dr. Johns-
ton, " and his political and other heresies troubled
the Assembly no more."

It was under these circumstances that the first
journey was undertaken to America in company
with Dr. Denham Smith as delegates to the Gen-
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church North.
No thought at that time had entered my father's
mind that he might be called to leave Dublin.
Many interests bound him to the place. He felt
deeply responsible for the success of the new
church in Rutland Square. The future of the
Evangelical Wilness seemed to depend largely
upon him. He was surrounded by able and
sympathetic men, for not only was his old friend
and college companion, Dr. Hamilton Magee in
Dublin, but Dr. Fleming Stevenson was meeting
with great and deserved success in a new church
enterprise with which my father had had much
to do. In fact on all sides he was engaged, as

^ The Irish Presbyterian, November, 1 898.

142 THE MINISTRY IN

he thought, usefully. He had refused a splendid
opening for usefulness in Glasgow. A committee
had waited upon him from free St. George's
Church in Edinburgh to urge him to consider
that opening, but he not only refused, but at his
suggestion the matter was kept confidential, and
until the memoirs of one of the committeemen
was published in which the offer was mentioned
no public knowledge was had of the refusal.
Even in Belfast many were hoping that he would
sooner or later be called to take the real leader-
ship in the Assembly.

The attempt to nominate him for the modera-
torship revealed what was a complete surprise to
him. He saw that the "pillars" did not want
him. He was too active, too aggressive, too lit-
tle of a man to handle, too hard to confer secretly
with, nor was he given to schemes and arrange-
ments. He was moreover a Liberal, believed in
secular education and personal rights. He
thought questions should be debated in open
court, and that men should respect each other's
differing views. To his dying day he loved and
reverenced Dr. Cooke, and looked on him with
almost an indiscriminating honor and affection.
He saw no reason why the small men who came
toddling after Dr. Cooke imitating their leader on

MARY'S ABBEY— DUBLIN 143

his weakest side, should quarrel with him be-
cause he could not share Dr. Cooke's political
opinions, or be blinded by the Conservative
chaff obsequious Tories flung in Dr. Cooke's eyes.
He knew, moreover, that Dr. Cooke himself de-
manded no sacrifice of manhood from his younger
brethren ; that although accustomed to be obeyed,
and proud of his judgment and skill in debate,
yet even so in the most acrid disputes of the
old Arian controversy. Dr. Cooke had main-
tained the position that there should be no perse-
cution "for personal opinion" and no legislation
that would be retroactive ; and that only con-
vinced judgment was worth anything to the
Church.

It was with mingled feelings, therefore, as the
correspondence shows, that the invitation to go
as delegate to America was accepted, and other
overtures coming just at that time of a most in-
viting character, opened up before him, as he
started westward, the whole subject of his duty
to Ireland, to himself and to the Church at large.
At the same time the idea of going to America
was wholly strange to him. There were not as
many ties between the two countries then as
now, and so far as the writer knows, the call ex-
tended to the Dublin preacher by the New York

144 THE MINISTRY IN DUBLIN

congregation was one of the first calls of the
kind, although the precedent was followed very
often in after years. To the little household in
Dublin the trip seemed an exceedingly formidable
one. The far-off land lay then on a vastly more
misty horizon than it does now, although even
yet the American much more easily makes the
journey to Europe, accustomed as the American
is to longer distances in his own land, than does
the European make the trip to America. Hence
with some measure of excitement, natural under
the circumstances, the duties of the delegation
were undertaken.

VI. FIRST JOURNEY TO THE UNITED
STATES

A PRAYER FOR ONE TRAVELLING

Gracious Father !

We desire to join together with all our hearts in
committing to Thy care one who now leaves his
dwelling. Go Thou, O heavenly Father, who art
everywhere present, with him, to give safety and
peace in all the ways of life, to bestow the peace that
coraeth from knowing and serving Christ, and to give
at last an entrance with us, and with all the family
that is named after Jesus, into Thy heavenly king-
dom, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

— From Family Prayers, by J. Hall.

146

VI

FIRST JOURNEY TO THE UNITED STATES

CONTINENTAL TRAVELS. FIRST VOYAGE ACROSS THE
ATLANTIC. IMPRESSIONS OF NEIV YORK. THE ASSEMBLIES.
WESTERN EXPERIENCES. FAST TRAVELLING. WASHINGTON
kAND BALTIMORE. THE JOURNEY HOME.

IN the spring of 1867 my parents went with an
old friend, with whom they often travelled,
for a trip to Italy. They left Dublin on March
25th, for London, going at once to Paris, and
thence next day to Lyons, Marseilles, Nice and
thence by steamer to Genoa, and after a rather
hurried visit to Naples and the surrounding
country they proceeded to Rome to be there in
time for the Lenten week, and the Easter cele-
bration. The impressions made on my father by
this visit to Rome he often recalled. He had
many warm personal admirers among the Roman
Catholics, and had worked with them in Ireland
in many public enterprises, but he had a deeply-
rooted sense of the danger of Roman Catholicism
as a system. In Rome he saw what he con-
sidered the pure heathenism of both the ceremo-
nial and the government. In those days Rome
was still under the dominion of the Vatican.
«47

148 FIRST JOURNEY

The luggage was searched for forbidden books,
among which the New Testament was counted
as one, and on every hand was seen the adminis-
trative inefficiency of the Papal power in Rome.
When in 1870 a change became inevitable in the
mastery over Rome no one rejoiced more at the
thought of a free Italy than did my father. The
glory of the music, and the gorgeous nature of
the spectacle in Rome was not enough to hide
from him the miserable bondage, as he saw it, of
the superstitions that overlaid the gospel. The
crowds of dirty monks, the beggars.the filth of the
side streets, the disorder during the processions,
the eternal paying of small sums for services not
really rendered, and the miserable way in which
the art treasures and the priceless antiquities were
kept seem to have been the impressions most
deeply made upon the whole party. So bad was
the drainage, and so defective the water supply,
that each returning Easter season with its crowds
brought fever as a regular and expected guest
into the city. Nor did the party wholly escape,
although prompt flight to Florence stopped the
attack from reaching a serious point. The ap-
pointment to go to America compelled my father
to hurry home, and leaving the two ladies in
Paris he made his way back to Dublin. A pas-

DR. JOHN HALL AT THE AGE OF THIRTY-EIGHT

TO THE UNITED STATES 149

sage having been secured for him on the steam-
ship City of New York, he was bound to sail
on the 2d of May. This first voyage was so new
an experience that a careful journal was kept.
The contrast between the present day comfort
makes some selections from it of interest.

" 2d May, 1867. Left my most happy home at
eight o'clock for Queen's Bridge Station. Had the
carriage mostly to myself for reading purposes
good, no one coming in to whom I cared to talk.
Got a horse and cart (Cork cars too small) to take
my luggage to the Queenstown Station. After a
delay of an hour the steamer was signalled, and
we saw her coming in. The passengers gath-
ered, and we all set out in the tender for her —
about half a mile away. The embarking of the
steerage passengers was a scramble, in the end
of which I got my luggage and possession of my
cabin. 1 find 1 have a room all to myself. It is
a very good one in the centre of the ship, al-
though the steward says it takes in water in cer-
tain weather. I got settled about six o'clock, and
going on deck found the night too thick to see much
of the land. 1 waited for tea at half-past seven, but
when it was served was not disposed for it; went
to my berth and had an undisturbed night's sleep.

" 3d May, Friday. Could have had some break-

150 FIRST JOURNEY

fast but the steward forgot my order, and 1 did
not feel enough appetite to make a row, for
when I got up 1 felt squeamish, but was very
well in bed. At four 1 rose and dressed and
went on deck after dinner. It was raining, and
after surveying the scene without poetry or en-
thusiasm of any kind I returned, undressed and
went to bed. The strongest feeling of my rather
torpid nature at this time was one of profound
thankfulness that my darling children were
happy at home, and my beloved wife enjoying
herself in Paris. I was not however continuously
sick, but was plainly thought to be so, for an oppo-
site neighbor with whom I had exchanged scraps
of personal history on Thursday evening (from
Hollywood, County Down) came to me and offered
some 'excellent oaten bread' which his wife had
bought as a ' good thing to settle the stomach. ' I
felt the kindness, but as sheherself was audibly ill
in bed 1 did not feel proper confidence in the cure.
" Saturday morning, May 4th. . . . I ought
to say that the ship's motion is easy, but to me dis-
agreeable, though I can hardly tell why. We have
our sails set and are going over smooth enough
water at twelve miles an hour, so that we must be
now about 540 miles from Cork on Saturday after-
noon.

TO THE UNITED STATES 151

"Wednesday morning, May 8th. Soon after
the above was written the weather became too
rough to admit of doing anything with comfort
except ' looking upward ' and thinking of my treas-
ures on earth. The high sea makes the sound of
the engine and screw most disagreeable. Re-
morseless unresting, it keeps pounding away as it
were at my very head, and accompanied as it is by
the dashing of the water along the side of the ship
and especially about the screw, it is not at all
favorable to rest at night, especially in the crib,
which it is an insult to my usual sleeping place to
call ' a bed.' Sabbath continued rough with most
disagreeable cross seas: no service of any kind
could be had, and many were sick in their berths.
Of the remainder many, 1 am sorry to say, were
drunk at night. Each afternoon I went for a little
on deck, but have not much appetite save for
meat, and I feel as if I could consume a jar of
pickles.

"On Monday the cross seas changed into a series
of squalls, dead against us which reduced our
speed to about six knots an hour, and made our
plunging through it very uncomfortable. 1 spent
the whole forepart of the day on deck, the fore-
part of the ship every now and then covered with
a sheet of spray. . . . Had a good deal of

152 FIRST JOURNEY

talk with some passengers, and especially with
a highly educated German (I suspect a Jesuit
priest) who speaks English well, and knows the
older philosophy well, but he is feeble indeed as
to the truth. He could not hold his ground five
minutes with Hamilton Magee.

"On Tuesday things got still worse. A stiff
northwesterly wind blowing us out of our
course. Only a sailor could hold his footing. 1
sat a long time on the steps and watched the
scene, the captain, who, of course, made little of
it with me for a little while. Storms are painted
fairly enough by the writers and painters. The
great irregular moving masses of water, black,
dark blue, cobalt and now and then, as the sun
shone through the tops of the waves, light-blue
and even green like malachite, may well enough
look to the imaginations of steerage passengers
on a lower deck 'mountain high.' In point
of fact I think the valleys were about fifteen feet
deep. The stormy petrels were skimming their
sides, hke swallows, no doubt seeking their food.
The screams of great sea-birds were now and
again heard, and their plunges into the waves
were seen. They are often in the 'troubled'
waters behind the ship. As night came on the
sea grew worse, and with nothing but the ship

TO THE UNITED STATES 153

to blow against the motion became unpleasant.
The wind went hissing through the shrouds
(like the confidential whisper of the tempest)
with a subdued force that we felt rather than
heard, and it was withal very cold. I went to
bed realizing 1 trust and feel the meaning of
Psalm 46 (God is our refuge and our strength).
The early part of the night continued rough, but
towards morning it moderated, and the wind
chopped about on our beam, so that we have
some sails up and are going as fast as on the first
days. . . . Among the suffering ladies I am
sorry to report my oaten-cake friend, who has
not realized the benefit of the specific. She has
not left her cabin, but may be heard in it, where
she is accompanied by two suffering children.
As I write the ship rolls a good deal and makes
writing very difficult. I have my pockets full of
books, and beside me the features of my own
little circle, and now that we are more than half
way to New York, and we may hope the worser
half, 1 need not feel cast down. In time perhaps
I would get inured to life at sea but it would take
long.

" Wednesday, four o'clock. This is the first
endurable day for three or four. The day keeps

154 FIRST JOURNEY

fine, and we make fair progress. 1 have done
more to-day in reading, etc., than any one else
likely on board. It is a lazy life. Got through
several magazines which had lain by me on the
continent. The ship will soon have been eight
clear days from Liverpool, and if it had not been
for adverse winds three more would likely have
brought us in sight of America. Now it will
\ikely take five more. . . . Last night I found
some Irish Presbyterians on board, and to-day I
was a good deal among the steerage people talk-
ing to them as well as 1 could. They are of all
nations, and this is not easy. To-day the ship
made 320 miles, and if all goes well we shall still
reach New York on Monday. 1 have made the
acquaintance of an Englishman, an engineer who
has been through Turkey in Asia. His little
Greek wife is with him, the daughter of a Greek
captain of a Turkish warship. She cannot speak
English and he cannot speak Greek, but both
speak Turkish and so converse in that tongue.
He gives a bad account of the Greeks as dishon-
est, mean and lying. He is not a man of culture,
but in knocking about the world has learned
many facts. . . . Our captain is the man
who was out fifty-four days in the City of
Washington, whose screw was lost. He put

TO THE UNITED STATES 155

his passengers aboard another ship and stuck by
his own. . . . There are 760 steerage pas-
sengers! Swiss, Swedes, Dutch, English, Amer-
icans and Irish; and the crew also are much di-
vided in nationality. . . . 1 spoke to a young
woman (married) going to San Francisco, who
told me her family lived in Dublin, and that her
brother was or had been a Methodist, but now went
to a 'people they call Presbyterians, and the min-
ister was a Dr. Hall or Hawley, she didn't know
which.' I took his address. Have been among
the steerage folks again — not many English-speak-
ing Protestants among them. But on the whole
a sober lot. The worst case, I am sorry to say,
of beastly drinking is among the cabin pas-
sengers — a Belfast man, who gives himself out to
be a mill owner.

" Sabbath morning, May 12th. Good sleep, and
up early as the captain has asked me to preach.
Good congregation including two Jews and a
Roman Catholic doctor, and a Roman Catholic
priest, already mentioned from Germany. My
text was I Peter 1:19. Afterwards went below
among the steerage passengers and never spent
a happier time than the four hours with them;
the Swedes, five hundred of them, all Lutheran,

156 FIRST JOURNEY

singing their hymns to the tune ' I have a Father
in the promised land.' I got hold of a good lad
who spoke English and interpreted and 1 preached
to them. Their tears flowed. They kissed my
hands, and were most grateful. All are learning
English. The evening was fine, the moon shi-
ning, and we getting on our way very well."

The rest of the journal is filled with little details
of only relative interest now. My father was
taken at once to the home of Mr. James Stuart,
a distant relative, where as he remarks, "1 am
luxuriously lodged."

The object of sending a delegation to America
from the church of Ireland was to establish again
bonds of fellowship imperilled by the Civil war,
and its divisions of sentiment. Dr. Denham was
accompanied by his wife, but my father as the
younger man, expected to travel too far and too
fast to permit of the trip being a pleasure to a
lady. He at one time thought of taking his
eldest boy, but the same considerations prevented
that plan also. He had only eight weeks in the
country, and in that time he spoke day after day
in nearly all the eastern and many of the western
cities. The delegation was formally accredited
to the Old and New School Assemblies, to the
Synod of the Reformed church and to the Synod

TO THE UNITED STATES 157

of the Covenanters, and while in America a com-
mission came to them to the Covenanter Synod
in Canada. One of the vivid recorded impres-
sions of New York was a thunder-storm which
came soon after landing; "I slept well, notwith-
standing a thunder-storm last night like which I
never saw anything." The first duty was dis-
charged in meeting the " Covenanters," as my
father calls the body to which Mr. George H.
Stuart at that time belonged, i. e., the United
Presbyterian Church, and which was meeting in
New York. Mr. Stuart was a relative, and had a
national reputation in religious circles on account
of his zeal and energy in all good works, but in
particular in connection with that of the Chris-
tian commission throughout the Civil war. No
religious public meeting without Mr. Stuart as
chairman was considered quite complete. He
was afterwards disciplined by his body for sing-
ing hymns, which as he was totally tone-deaf
seemed to many to be making a crime out of a
calamity. He had long known and corres-
ponded with my father, (see page 58) and had
shown practical and wise interest in the Con-
naught mission. It was now a great and real
pleasure to him to arrange plans for the appear-
ances of the delegation. Mr. Stuart had an in-

158 FIRST JOURNEY

satiable appetite for public meetings, and his
mere presence insured that the meeting would be
well arranged, full of snap and thoroughly well-
known beforehand. He moreover knew well
the American public, and was in touch with as
many religious interests as any man of his gener-
ation. He at once began making plans for the
exploiting of the Irish delegation. Mr. Stuart
coming himself from Markethill in the north of
Ireland felt a most particular desire to have the
results of the mission as abundant as possible.

In a letter to the home circle, my father says in
one place: "1 need not now dwell upon impres-
sions. Everything indicates wealth, and all that
money can buy is on hand. Every one is most
kind, and I am sure, sincerely glad to see us. We
shall have hard work for the next month, if we
overtake all the engagements made for us. New
York is fine; in the end I live is like the west
end of Glasgow; the business end has an un-
finished rough and ready, republican kind of
look, every house having a mind of its own."

After meeting with the Reformed Presbyte-
rian church the start was made for Rochester
where the New School Assembly was in session.
The trip took the party up the Hudson, which
made a most enduring impression upon the visi-

TO THE UNITED STATES 159

tors. " The river itself is far finer tinan tiie
Rhine, or any river in Europe, although, of
course, it lacks the historic feature, and the
picturesque castles of the old world scenery,"
was the verdict of my father. As it happened
two brothers of younger years had preceded my
father to America, and as both were in Canada,
and not far from the Falls of Niagara, he writes
"1 found at breakfast that I was within a day's
journey and six dollars of Robert. The love of
my brothers got the better of the love of the Falls
and at ten o'clock 1 was off to the Canada side,
crossed Lake Ontario by boat to Toronto, thence
sixty-three miles by train. There I spent the
Sabbath and preached in the Presbyterian and
Wesleyan churches."

On Tuesday the delegation was received at
Rochester by the New School Assembly, and
"very cordially" is the comment of the corre-
spondence. Thence they proceeded to Cincin-
nati, "rather slowly" my father thought, but
"Dr. Denham does not like to go too fast." At
Cincinnati the speech of my father made a pro-
found impression. The enthusiasm aroused was
very great, and from that time on calls came
to him to speak at meetings all over the country
at most impossible distances. Of this speech

i6o FIRST JOURNEY

Harper's IVeekly said: "His eloquent speech on
the occasion of his reception, which was one of
the striking incidents of that Assembly, will never
be forgotten by any who heard it." The re-
sponse to the many calls for speeches began to
try even the younger member of the delegation.
He writes, "I am in good health, I am thankful
to say, but it is very fast work, and the meals
are so unlike my own in time, quality, etc., that I
am not always comfortable." At the same time
he says: "Our coming to the new school has
already done good, and a deputation will be in
Edinburgh and in Dublin. Please to send a letter
on getting this to Dr. McCosh telling him that
the new school deputation will be in Edinburgh,
and that they are looking to him to care for them
in Ireland."

In the correspondence of this period great
comfort is taken in a small coin. "Tell Emily I
have her half-penny as a memorial of her, and
often look at it." The last day in Dublin, had in
fact been given to the children. It is one of the
writer's vivid memories of going in Phoenix Park
for a last " long walk " with the father who was
going to America. The children had heard of the
expense of such a journey, and just before part-
ing the little daughter, about six years of age,

TO THE UNITED STATES i6i

slipped a half-penny into the father's hand. " It
is all 1 have, but it may help towards the expense
in America." It certainly did help to cheer the
journey, as many allusions to it in the home let-
ters abundantly prove.

In the hurry and rush of those eight busy
weeks the family in Eccles Street was never for-
gotten. The leaves of the journal have a "bank-
note " for Bolton's collection of stamps and bills;
a "coin or two " is in the trunk for Robert's col-
lection. Alas, the shops of New York are "en-
tirely too expensive to permit of the purchase of
many little things one would like to take home
as keep-sakes," but "no doubt I will find some-
thing for the rest by and by." From Cincinnati
the plans carried the party to Xenia, Ohio, and
thence to Indianapolis, and every occasion for a
speech or a public meeting was made the most
of by Mr. Stuart who was now in full control.
At Springfield the life and death of Lincoln is
noted with tender words. In the struggle be-
tween the North and the South, my father had
taken a definite stand in a speech made in Glas-
gow as the war was going on, on the side of the
North. Even as a student he had interested him-
self, as we have seen, in the liberation movement.
For Lincoln he always had a sincere admiration

i62 FIRST JOURNEY

mingled with regrets that he lacked, what my
father thought he most needed, the comforts of
an active militant Christian life.

The State of Illinois impressed the traveller im-
mensely. He writes, "The next day we came
by Dayton, to the capital of Missouri (St. Louis)
about 260 miles, and right across the whole State
of Illinois, one of the finest and richest countries
1 have ever seen. The land is so level that one
sees ten miles, and so fertile that it needs no
manure for twenty years and produces 100
bushels of corn to the acre ! " In St. Louis,
Springfield, Lafayette meetings were held at
which my father preached, and then the party
went on to Chicago. He writes, " I am not
overworked, though I do not like the living
here, and am better at home with you. But the
profusion of things, fruits of the earth especially
that are eaten is something wonderful. The
state of religion is much like as with us. In
Europe people do not enough carry religion into
their business. Here I think they carry business
into their religion a good deal."

Of Chicago the impression was of rush and
hurry. "It is the Queen of the West, with
200,000 people, where thirty years ago there were
only 600! We get crowded meetings, and are

TO THE UNITED STATES 163

■wonderfully reported, as you will see, not in
what we say, but how we say it." And again,
"We are carried round Sabbath-schools to no
end, and Dr. Denham and I get rid of a good deal
of perspiration. Happily we have plenty of iced
water." Crowded meetings in Pittsburg are
mentioned, and thence the journey was to Phila-
delphia. Here again preaching, speaking, and
visiting schools, institutions, and attending public
dinners consumed the time, until atlast my father
insisted on a day or two of leisure to visit Balti-
more and Washington, both of which cities seem
at that time to have rather disappointed him,
although he was deeply and profoundly moved
by the graves at Arlington, "where rest 30,000
soldiers, sleeping their last bivouac."

Lecture engagements called him thence to Can-
ada, and from there down through the New Eng-
land States, speaking on the way at Amherst,
and recalling Jonathan Edwards as he passed
Northampton. On the 23d he was in New York
again and found that arrangements had been
made for him to preach in the morning for Dr.
Adams (New School) and in the afternoon in
the Fifth Avenue Church (Old School), and at
Dr. Duvyea's in the evening. On the 24th he
was in Princeton, speaking there and addressing

i64 FIRST JOURNEY

the Cliosophic Society, which had elected him a
member. Here he met Dr. Hodge and others.
From this on the time was filled with various ap-
pointments and visits to various people, including
the run up to Canada, already mentioned, and
then on the 13th of July passage was taken on
the City of London, for the old home.

This trip to America made a great impression
upon him of the vast possibihties for good or
evil that lay involved in the tremendous power
and wealth he saw was in the future. Mr. Stuart
had set his heart on having him come to America,
even before this visit, but the idea only very
vaguely crossed his mind that he himself should
ever come, but in one place he says, " I can
hardly overcome the idea that at some future
time some of the children will be on this conti-
nent, where things are done on so much larger a
scale than with us."

Looking back upon his first visit to America,
my father once recorded some of his early
memories and impressions which in part are as
follows:

" I landed from the Ctty of New York steamer
on Manhattan Island, not as an emigrant nor a
mere tourist, but to discharge an honorable and
pleasant duty as a delegate from the ' mother

TO THE UNITED STATES 165

Church,' in Ireland (for so we may truly call
her), to the Presbyterian Churches in Synod and
Assemblies in the United States. Expecting to
be only a couple of months in the country, and
then to return to pastoral duty in the capital of
my native land, I meant, of course, to keep eyes
and ears very wide open, and to carry away as
much as possible of — not money, for my ex-
penses were provided for by the body repre-
sented, nor glory, for 1 thought myself quite un-
fit for the task — but knowledge of the places, the
people, and the institutions of which I had read
and heard from childhood.

"A lovely summer day, the 13th May, 1867 —
was the day of landing; and, like most others, I
looked with unbounded admiration upon the
scenery opening up to the eye as one enters the
Narrows and approaches the city. There is
nothing just like it in Europe as a bit of scenery,
and there is nothing at all like its magnificent,
dignified ferry-boats, with their great beams in
the air, not to speak of those models of confi-
dence and impudence, the steam-tugs. I had had
the advantage of a few days' seasickness in the
solitude of a room, knew no one on board, and
expected to see dear friends on the American
shore; so when the tugs rushed past, and

i66 FIRST JOURNEY

screamed, ' Keep out of my way if you want to
be safe,' it was natural to laugh in admiration.

There was a little disenchantment over the
rather ragged piers in great contrast with the
solid cut-stone docks of such places as Liverpool,
and in the rather rough streets over which one
was rolled, but it was not forgotten that the
country was new, and some things needed to be
' fixed up.' There was an opportunity given to
speak the very night of the first day on the
American soil, and 1 am bound to say gratefully
that the country has continued in this respect as
it began with me.

"Oh! what a day that was that laid bare, in
pleasant sunshine, the glories of the Hudson,
right and left, as surveyed from the steamboat.
There were books and papers for the way, but
they had a holiday. I had been on the Rhine and
among other tempting bits of European scenery
in the previous spring. There were, of course,
the castles, the chalets and the lingering tradi-
tions; but for grace, dignity and interest the
Hudson is far ahead of them, and well prepared
one for the Falls of Niagara the next day.
'Blood is thicker than water,' and the Falls
were soon forsaken for a brother and a group of
unknown cousins on the Canadian side. It was

TO THE UNITED STATES 167

good to see an old aunt, settled in Canada about
the time I was born, and to hear her tell of
children and children's children, and chuckle
over the saying of the neighbors that ' if you
threw up a stone anywhere, it would fall on
one of them.' Duties really began at Roch-
ester, where an Assembly met. 1 came in
after midnight, and judge of my horror on
finding the portmanteau that contained the
speeches lost! And, to add to the terrors, the
speech had to come off early next forenoon. .No
matter. There was an opportunity to see the
noble form of Dr. Adams, and without being
told, guess his commanding position. And the
speeches got themselves off at Cincinnati, and
Xenia, and Indianapolis, and Chicago, and each
day brought its store of new ideas, and it did
seem too bad to have only a few days in Phila-
delphia, and then a few more in New York, and
then quit the continent probably forever!"

The voyage home was uneventful. At first
calm, and yet very slow. The notes of the voy-
age declare, "This ship is about 390 feet long,
100 feet longer than the City of New York, more
steady, but her machinery is defective, and she
has had to stop three times to allow it to coal.
The table is good. The first few days we had

i68 FIRST JOURNEY

fine weather, but our motion was slow, one day
we only did 156 miles. I have been able to
preach each Sabbath morning, and to very at-
tentive audiences, some of whom wept. One
rough sailor declared to me in a sort of ' aside '
on deck, that ' he could listen to me talking to
the day of Pentecost,' a well meant though ill-
expressed compliment. I have read a good deal
on board, including periodicals, the Edinburgh
Review, North British Review and Charles King-
sley's 'Two Years Ago' and 'Yeast.'" The
landing was at last affected, and Dublin was
reached, where the little family was found in
restored health. For while away the two
younger children had been ill. At once was
begun the ceaseless round of visits that marked
the faithful ministry during its whole range.

VII. THE CALL TO AMERICA AND
ITS ACCEPTANCE

AMERICA TO GREAT BRITAIN

BY REV. JOHN HALL, D. D.'

Mother of nations vanquishing the earth ;
Old ocean queen ! to whom we owe our birth ;
Columbia, mingling with thy grief her tear,
Sends thee her greeting on this sad New-Year.

There have been strifes — in woe, they are forgot ;
And feuds — they are as though they had been not :
When father-land the mournful watch is keeping,
The scattered household needs must hear the weeping.

Thrice thirty years since we were seeking rest,
A callow bird, pushed from the parent nest;
Now strong, and glad her eagle wing to fold,
Her memory of the deed — not she — grows old.

Grieve not, because ye sent us o'er the sea ;
God meant it well for truth and liberty.
He makes us great ; so let these clasping hands
Be ever clasped — for blessing to the lands.

New York, Dec. 75, i8yi.

* Published in an issue of the New York Ledger ^ in which also some
lines by Tennyson appeared.

170

BRITISH & IRISH MAGNETIG K

i — ,U-

-*r*-

liuwing Mes:

VII

THE CALL TO AMERICA AND ITS ACCEPTANCE

HINTS OF ^4 COMING CALL. ^N ^4TLANTIC MESSAGE.
THE CALL TO AMERICA ACCEPTED. REMONSTRANCES.
REASONS FOR GOING. CORRESPONDENCE IVITH ^MERIC/I.
^N IRISH ESTIMATE OF SERVICE RENDERED.

EVEN before the delegation had left America,
the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Ses-
sion had considered the wisdom of calling my
father to the vacant pulpit, and had cautious ap-
proaches made to him. These overtures were
not however taken seriously by him, and in his
ignorance of local conditions he could give them
no thought. He was therefore not a little sur-
prised to learn from Mr. George H. Stuart that
the matter was being definitely pushed, and that
he would be compelled to consider some over-
ture. The letter stating this was followed almost
immediately by a cable from Mr. William Walker,
as clerk of the session, saying, "Large meeting
of congregation voted you cordial and unani-
mous call."
In those days cables were not as common as

now. After twelve years of seemingly almost
171

172 THE CALL TO AMERICA

fruitless struggle Mr. Cyrus Field had made in
1866 his last successful effort. Just before the
starting of the Great Eastern with the cable on
board, a number of clergymen had been invited
to Valencia to inaugurate with appropriate relig-
ious services the undertaking. Among those in-
vited had been my father; and it was with a feel-
ing akin to awe that this cable message a few
months later was viewed in the family circle.
Among the household treasures was a piece of
the cable, and a finely illustrated history of the
undertaking. These were all again examined
and admired in the light of this practical example
of the efficiency of the Atlantic cable.

This message came on the ist of August, 1867,
and was at once taken into grave consideration.
Many things had to be weighed on both sides.
The aged mother in the north of Ireland was
deeply moved at the mere prospect of having the
great ocean part her in her declining days from
the son on whom she now gladly and freely
leaned. Her one comfort was that, "he would
be preaching to many nations, and that though
her hope he would have been a missionary was
not fulfilled, that yet at least his voice would
bring the gospel to distant parts."

Had all the love and affection been made man-

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 173

ifest that later years proved existed, the parting
from heland would have been far harder, and
the path of duty less plain. But my father felt,
and to an inner circle guardedly said, that his
sympathies were with a set of ideas and a policy
plainly not favored by the General Assembly as
a body. He was an outspoken Liberal; the policy
of the Assembly was to work with the Tory
party in the great issues at least. He was for
disestablishment and thorough disestablishment
at that; the Assembly was — as seen in its action
of i868^on the other side. He was on the side
of secular and undenominational education; the
Assembly was not heartily in favor of it, although
assenting with constant, and often unjust criti-
cisms of their representatives on the National
Board of Education. My father had no objection
to either organ or hymns, but these were the
burning questions — hardly settled yet — on which
a triumphant majority were glad year after year
to assert their power to stop progress by de-
structive conservatism. Along many lines my
father had been calling down the criticisms of the
"pillars" and "safe " counsellors in the church
by demands for reforms in Sabbath-school teach-
ing, by his temperance activity and by pleas to
carry on the evangelization of Ireland along the

174 THE CALL TO AMERICA

lines laid down by Dr. Edgar. There was little
or no opposition of an open kind to my father's
restless activity along these and other lines; but
there was a steady quiet suppressing of his en-
ergy. He longed for "more atmosphere," and
said so confidentially to an inner circle. Yet he
loved Ireland, and he loved Dublin. He clung
with a tender and unceasing affection, not only
to a little band of ministerial friends, but to num-
berless families all over the country. In Belfast,
in Newry, in Cork as well as in Dublin his heart
was bound by sweet and lasting bonds to Chris-
tian friends, whom he never forgot, and who
never forgot or betrayed him.

Great as was the pressure put upon him to ac-
cept the call voices were at the same time
lifted up by intimate friends both in Ireland
and in America urging him to consider the
step carefully. His oldest and dearest friend
wrote:

My dear Hall :

It is not my place, of course, to interfere in that most
serious business of your going to New York. Serious it is, in
almost every aspect of it. I know quite well you are not the
man to act from impulse, and that you have deliberately
weighed the matter in all its bearings. I am not certain
whether you have irrevocably pledged yourself to go, nor do I
wish you to tell me whether you have or not. But, if you have
NOT, I beseech you to consider the position of responsibility and

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 175

influence that God has assigned you in the present crisis of our
ecclesiastical and national history. You are, I am quite sure,
satisfied that some of the gravest questions that have ever been
discussed in our church in our time, are certam to come up
very soon. You are needed. You know I am never given to
flattery. But I only say what I think, and what I have very,
very often said to others, that of all the men in our church, you
are the man, I would say, we cannot spare. God is not tied to
any individual instrument, it is true. But seeing He conde-
scends to raise up, and to qualify instruments for His own
work, we are not dishonoring nor disturbing Him when we
recognize the qualifications for special service, He has Himself
bestowed. ... I write in confidence, I am not mentioning
even to my wife that I am writing to you. It is as well not.
I can speak more freely. There will be only one feeling in
Dr. Kirkpatrick's family should you go — of deep and poignant
sorrow. Those young people are all exceedingly attached to
you. I know these are small matters, but I can at least do no
harm to mention them.

The one thing that weighs upon my mind is, that you are
more needed for, and I think, considering everything, more
fitted for, working in the land of your birth (first and second)
than in any country under heaven. If the Lord still opens up
your way to remain among us, no one will be more gratified
than your old college friend, H. Magee.

To J. Hall,
Aug. i^th, i8(yj.

From an Irish friend then in America and fa-
miliar with conditions in New York and even in
some degree with the conditions in the church
he asked for " the gloomy side " of the call,
and received a very sober and careful letter, of
which some abstracts may be interesting.

176 THE CALL TO AMERICA

" August gth, iSby.

"Dear Dr. Hall : —

******

"You will understand that my object is to lay
before you such facts regarding this country and
the church as, I think might influence your de-
cision as to coming out here, and I will do it as
fairly as I can, for I would not on my account
desire you to come out and then be disappointed
by finding anything different from what you had
expected, and yet I cannot tell you how thankful
I should feel personally if the Father should in His
kind providence bring you here while we are
still here.

"In the first place the church has not been in
a very satisfactory state. Some did not treat Dr.
Rice at all as they ought to have done, and the

one who took the lead was whom you

have met. Some particularly desired another
candidate when Dr. Rice was elected, and they
never, therefore, were favorably disposed to
him. Besides, he came at the beginning of the
war. He was a Kentuckian by birth, and his
wife and most of his friends were southern peo-
ple, and his not preaching political sermons was
construed by his enemies into a sympathy for
the south. But it was really only a few of the

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 177

extremists carried away by the excitement and
passion of tlie moment, who turned against him.
The great mass of the church did not want po-
litical preaching, nay, they were very thankful
not to have it. They loved the noble old doctor
most intensely, no one had any idea how in-
tensely, until he was compelled to leave them.
They would have done anything to have retained
his connection with the church. But he would
not remain while he could not work and he was
completely broken down. Of his own free will
he resigned, greatly to the sorrow of the great
portion of the congregation. In your case how-
ever the church is perfectly unanimous, and you
come without being mixed up with either po-
litical party. ... I fear however should you
come out you will miss very much the congenial
circle of ministers which you must break from
in leaving Dublin. You will find a prejudice
against you in the minds of some of the smaller
clergymen here. It is natural that they should
feel slighted by a call being given to you a for-
eigner, which to some extent will be strengthened
by the prejudice against Irishmen in particular;
and there is a strong party, both in the Presby-
terian church and out of it called the 'Native
American ' party, who would not scruple to use

178 THE CALL TO AMERICA

the cry of foreign birth against you, if it suited
their ends, and any cry of this kind is dangerous
with a people like the Americans, who are natur-
ally illogical and impulsive, and therefore dog-
matic and apt to be carried away by their feelings
so as to see the end aimed at only, and for means
do, what, after calmer consideration they are
sorry for.

"As to America itself (remember I am trying
to bring up all the objections I can at present)
you would be much pained by the toadyism to
the moneyed aristocracy (by far the worst kind
of an aristocracy) and by the purse-proudness of
many (even among Christians) and by the gen-
eral feeling of the omnipotence of the Almighty
dollar.

"The education of your children would, I
think, be another serious obstacle. I would be
hooted at for hinting at such a thing, but my feel-
ing is that here the education is very superficial;
though I confess 1 do not intimately know it, but
only the results. . . . Again the rates of liv-
ing are so high that in Ireland I believe one could
be more comfortable on ^^500 than on ;!^i,ooo
here, and in many things the tastes, feelings and
ideas of Americans so differ from ours, that I
think you would never be so happy here as in

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 179

Ireland, and indeed I believe it would be a per-
sonal sacrifice your coming out here, which
should only be made in consideration of the Im-
portant place you are called to fill, believing that
it is the Master's call, and that it is He who has
opened such a wide field for you to labor in."

Not all the letter is quite in this strain, at the
same time other and personal considerations are
dwelt upon. My father had in no way com-
mitted himself in his letters to Mr. Stuart and at
one point in his deliberations words from certain
quarters urging him to stay would, probably
have decided him for Ireland. Those words
were not spoken. He felt that he could be
spared, and that the call from over the water
was the voice of Providence, and he said finally
"yes."

The moment that word was spoken there was
such a tremendous appeal made, and such a
commotion in many circles that my father was
fairly stunned. He had always with the utmost
vigor upheld Presbyterianism against the claims,
often he thought haughty and arrogant, of the
Established Church. Courteously yet firmly and
constantly he battled for what he considered a
more thoroughgoing and scriptural Protestantism
than the somewhat High Church Establishment.

i8o THE CALL TO AMERICA

What then was his pleasure and his astonishment
to find some of the very warmest and strongest
protests against his going coming from those
whom he had already begun to put his armor
on to fight. The Roman Catholics had good
words for him, and letters came from far-off
Connaught asking that he stay and fight out the
battle of the spelling-book which he had so
bravely carried on. The disestablishment party
in the church saw their supposed feeble minority
left without a leader; and now earnest words
were spoken by even those whose opposition
and silence had made my father feel that as a
young man in a very leading position his place
was one of great difficulty, even to the imperil-
ling the peace of the church. He profoundly felt
that after the struggles in which the church had
been engaged, and in the face of the difficulties
without, peace within was a first necessity.
To secure that peace was one of the motives that
led him to be willing to go. Now he had said
"yes," and all protests were in vain. Friends of
my father — I never heard him himself complain
of it, — felt that the Rutland Square congregation
had not dealt generously with him. He had made
pecuniary sacrifices to come to them. When
Mr. Findlater built the church he distinctly inti-

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE i8i

mated, in the letter already quoted, that he ex-
pected the congregation to support the ministry
liberally. There had been no adequate recogni-
tion of the greatly increased labors flung on the
shoulders of the younger man, by the larger con-
gregation and the declining strength of Dr.
Kirkpatrick. Now that he was going the mis-
take was seen, but it was too late. It only re-
mained by great public meetings and addresses,
as well as by memorial silver to show how
strongly fastened were the ties that bound the
pastor to the people he was so soon to leave.
To his friend Dr. Magee he wrote at once saying:

II Eccles Street, Dublin,

iSth August, i86y.
My Dear Friend :

Your kind letter certainly moved my feelings very much,
though my judgment remains as I had formed it after a careful
and serious survey of all the circumstances which a minister
should take into vievif in determining his duty in a case of this
kind. Everything that formed a reason for my coming to
Dublin has its stronger counterpart in reference to New York.
If the Church is apparently dependent on such men as I am,
remaining, it may be the best discipline for her in the present
temper of the majority of her members to have a few such re-
moved. I am sensible of the strength of the case made by the
Rutland Square people, but then any circumstance of ease,
comfort, society or business would withdraw any family among
them from us. Many whom I know most as friends are prov-
identially removed or removing and I should have only to do in
detail, what is now to be done with much pain to myself at
once. I always valued — much more than I can say — the

i82 THE CALL TO AMERICA

sympathy and affection of a few college friends among whom
you stand m a foremost place, but I often felt as if the prom-
inence of the place I was, without any fault of mine, put in,
and the multiplicity of duties to be done, deprived me of the
enjoyment of as much of this blessing as I might otherwise
have had. I am glad of the good-feeling of the young people,
to which you kindly allude, but I do not think it would be at
all just to Dr. Kirkpatrick and myself to alter the opinion I had
formed, and in some measure indicated, on account of the new
proposals.! jje and perhaps some others — of whom I know
you were not one — blamed me for setting him aside (or sanc-
tioning that course) partially — how much more if I were a
party to doing it altogether ? Nor, in other points of view,
would the proposed arrangement long continue consistently
with our self-respect, independence of feeling, and general
comfort. But my reason for going, though founded on a con-
joint view of all the circumstances, rest more on the facts in
connexion with New York, and if spared to live and labor
there, I shall always retain the friendships of other and less
care-laden times, and always be to you as I am sure you will
be to me a sympathizing, cordially appreciating, college and
Christian friend,

J. Hall.

Meantime letters in abundance pressing the
claims of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
came to hand, and the news of the hearty char-
acter of the call gave an additional reason for
prompt acceptance. The session of the Church
had issued a circular to the members who were
scattered for the vacation, as follows:

■ Dr. Kirkpatrick had intimated generously to the congrega-
tion that he was ready to step aside to enable them to retain his
fellow-minister.

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 183

New York, July 18, 1S67.
Dear Sir :

The Session of the Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue,
corner of Nineteenth Street, respectfully calls your attention to
the communication which follows :

Those members of the congregation who have had the op-
portunity of hearing the Rev. Dr. Hall, of Dublin, preach,
have, we believe, without exception, expressed a desire that he
should be called to our Church. In the scattered condition of
our congregation, usual at this season of the year, we do not
feel justified in calling a meeting to consider the subject with-
out giving an opportunity to all members of the congregation
to be present, and to express their views.

We, therefore, take this method of informing you that a
meeting of the congregation will be held on Wednesday
EVENING, July 31st, at the Lecture Room of the Church, at
half-past seven o' clock.

At that meeting it is our intention to nominate Rev. John
Hall, D. D., as Pastor of our Church, and to recommend him
most cordially.

We are happy to say that we have encouragement to believe
that he will accept a call from us, if he can obtain the consent
of his people.

The circumstances of the case, are, in our judgment, such as
to make early action necessary.

If, from any cause, you should be unable to attend the meeting,
you will very much oblige us by addressing a note to William
Walker, No. 69 Liberty Street, or either of the undersigned,
stating your approval or disapproval of the proposed call.
We are.

Yours respectfully,

William Walker,
Thomas U. Smith,
James M. Halsted,
David Hoadley,
Henry G. De Forest,
Henry Day.

i84 THE CALL TO AMERICA

The official letter giving notice of the formal
call and enclosing the papers was delayed, but
the clerk of the session, and the lifelong friend
of my father, Mr. William Walker, sent at once
a letter stating the full result. The letter read:

New York, j4u^. t, iSby.
My dear Sir :

I have but little time before the sailing of the steamer to
state that we had an unexpectedly large meeting of our con-
gregation last evening, and with entire unanimity a call was
made out for you. I received in addition about forty letters
(representing probably seventy-five persons,) from those who
could not be present at the meeting expressing their cordial ap-
proval of the proposed call.

The moderator was pleased to say that he had never been
present at a congregational meeting so perfectly harmonious in
their views.

The salary proposed is g6,ooo in gold zxiA the free occupa-
tion of a suitable dwelling-house. In addition the trustees
were instructed to pay the expense of bringing your family
here.

I telegraphed you this day informing you of the call.

The necessary papers will be forwarded as soon as they can
be prepared.

With the earnest prayer that your decision may be such that
God may be glorified and His cause promoted, I am very truly
Your brother in Christ,

Wm. Walker.

To this letter my father replied as below:

Dublin, 20th August, iSfyj.
My dear Sir :

I have received your kind communication and several

others on the same subject. I have weighed with much concern

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 185

all the circumstances of which I think a minister should take ac-
count in forming his judgment, and I see no reason to alter the
opinion of which you and other friends have had indications
already, that I should accept the invitation of your Church and
remove to New York. The fact that I did not take any step
towards a settlement in America, that I never contemplated it,
the great and commanding importance of the field, the una-
nimity of the members, and the urgent counsel of leading min-
isters of the American Church are among the principal reasons
that have led me — through a most painful struggle with feelings
of personal and local attachment — to this conclusion.

I have intimated my opinion to the congregation of Rutland
Square through the Session, and upon their taking certain steps
and begging my reconsideration of the case, I have again re-
ported my unaltered opinion to them. I shall be guided by
their convenience (as my colleague is just now in Amsterdam
at the Evangelical Alliance Conference), as to the time of ask-
ing the leave of the presbytery to resign ; but this, and I trust
all other necessary steps can be taken so as to admit of my re-
moval to New York with my family during the month of
October. The probable time of the equinoctial gales, the
time of a suitable steamer's sailing and other circumstances
must determine the exact time of the month, and of this
you shall have the earliest intimation possible in course of
post.

The cordial and harmonious action of the people is I trust
an indication that this thing is of the Lord, and I hope they
will not fail to beseech Him to crown the arrangement with
His own blessing. I am deeply sensible of the importance of
the work to which I go, and I shall enter upon it in dependence
on Divine aid, and in expectation of that confidence and co-
operation of Session and congregation of which it has been my
happiness to enjoy so much hitherto. Believe me to be, dear
Mr. Walker,

Yours most faithfully in the truth,

John Hall.

Wm. Walker. Esquire.

i86 THE CALL TO AMERICA

The parting from Dublin was made very seri-
ous by the expressions on every hand of the loss
the Church at large and the city sustained. Many
interests had to be cared for. The Evangelical
Witness passed into other hands, and became a
weekly paper of great power, and is still the
leading organ of the Presbyterian church as the
Belfast Witness. The national education cause
interested my father to the end of his life, and he
saw the complete triumph of his views before
many years had passed. The Episcopal church
was disestablished, and, as he had predicted,
prospered as never before on that very account.
National education won its way and compelled
the adhesion of even the extreme Roman Catho-
lic party. The Presbyterians flung off the lead-
ing strings of the Tory party and became intelli-
gently and independently liberal, securing their
own representation in the House of Commons,
and ceasing from that day on to be the mere
"tail to the Tory kite."

It would be, at this date, impossible to repro-
duce and tiresome to attempt it, the many
printed estimates and criticisms of the eighteen
years of public service in Ireland. Yet one esti-
mate in the Evangelical Witness after it had
passed from under his control is worth repro-

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 187

duction, as it is from tlie pen of the Rev. Thomas
Croskerry of Londonderry, who at that time
wielded large influence and whose services in
connection with the Evangelical Witness are still
fresh in the minds of Irish readers. The article
condensed somewhat was as follows:

The Rev. Dr. Hall.
" Our gifted predecessor, after a brief but dis-
tinguished ministry of eighteen years, has left his
native country to spend the remainder of his
days in the service of American Presbyterianism.
His departure is a subject of universal and un-
feigned regret. It is, however, a subject of just
pride and congratulation that he will nobly rep-
resent, in another land, the power and versatility
of that Scotch-Irish race which the historian,
Bancroft, has glorified in connection with the
civil and ecclesiastical history of America. It is
almost unnecessary to say to Irish Presbyterians
what Dr. Hall was to the church of his fathers.
The pulpit was the throne of his power. He
was no talker of drawling platitudes or explana-
tory futilities, with affected rhetoric or artificial
turns of phrase, or mental inanity, whose ser-
mons act upon part of a congregation like chlo-
roform, while they drive another portion into

i88 THE CALL TO AMERICA

thinking of nothing, a third into wondering
when the preacher will be done, a fourth into
ill-natured criticism, and a fifth out of church al-
together. He was something more than a mere
pounder of texts in a doctrinal mortar; some-
thing more than a dry, didactic talker after modes
beaten flat by the incessant hammering of cen-
turies. In fact. Dr. Hall was one of the freshest
preachers of the age. He preached, too, as he
talked, with a fine conversational freedom and
naturalness, and was so singularly lucid and
happy in expression that he was, to our mind,
the Goldsmith and Franklin, in one, of the Irish
pulpit. His sermons — some of them, if rumor is
to be credited, like Jonah's gourd, the offspring
of a single night — are powerful from their heav-
enly unction, their beseeching tenderness, their
popular scope, and, above all, their wide range
of analogical illustration. He was, indeed, sin-
gularly skillful in analogies, in the structure of
those ' aerial pontoons ' which bridge across the
literal and the figurative. It is, perhaps, the
highest praise of Dr. Hall's sermons and speeches
that they do not read well, for it is a well-known
fact that the newspaper speech which is polished
and rounded, and Ciceronian in its periods, is
anything but popular or pleasing to an audience.

AND ITS ACCEPTANCE 189

We must say, however, that the speeches of our
gifted friend were such fresh and familiar tran-
scripts of good sense and feeling, with a certain
rich zest and flavor and power about them, that
the reader could always associate the image of
the speaker with every paragraph, and his ear
seemed to catch and recognize the very tones of
living address. His speeches were always short.
Let it be said to his credit that he always ex-
hibited, in debate, a high-bred Christian courtesy,
and that he abstained from all those weapons of
fierce and sarcastic recrimination which do so
much to lower the moral status as well as lessen
the influence of the ministry.

"We cannot well estimate the amount of his
various labors for our denominational benefit,
whether as a preacher, as a journalist, or as a
director of education. For six years, in the midst
of endless concerns of public and private ur-
gency, in the metropolis of the country, where
he was surrounded by all the social temptations of
the popular preacher, he sustained the Evangel-
ical fVitness, without a farthing of help from
public or private funds, and did vast service to
the Presbyterian cause by defending and explain-
ing Presbyterianism, by correcting the errors and
chastising the heresies of the times, by rebuking

igo THE CALL TO AMERICA

the exclusiveness and intolerance of Churchmen,
and, above all, by cherishing the literary spirit
in our ministers. For nine years, he was occu-
pied in raising Dublin Presbyterianism to that
proud and commanding position it held in the
days when Joseph Boyse preached to a thousand
hearers in Wood Street, including the Darners,
and Langfords, and Loftuses, of high descent;
and for eighteen years he has been conspicuous,
in the ranks of his brethren, not merely for great
eloquence and great force of character, but as a
man of unblemished integrity, of tried courage,
of large benevolence, of unaffected piety — a man
whose views were always tolerant and liberal,
his convictions deep and hearty, with few antip-
athies and many sympathies, yet his career, in
all its stages, marked by decision. We can think
of his life proudly and thankfully, as of the
course of a river filling its channel from bank to
bank, moving onwards by the force of its own
ample stream, and, with effortless ministry,
watering the fields and the flowers on either
side."

VIII. THE MINISTRY IN NINETEENTH
STREET CHURCH

A PRAYER

I come to Thee, gracious Lord,
As taught in Thy most holy word
In Christ Thy Son, I do believe,
And for His sake the world I leave.

Teach me in faith and hope to live.
And to this end Thy spirit give,
That I may run the appointed race,
Sustain me by Thy heavenly grace.

Guide me through life, supply my needs.
Keep me from all unrighteous deeds,
And when death comes oh ! let it be
That I may live, O Lord, with Thee.

— John Hall.

192

VIII

THE MINISTRY IN NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH

ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK. THE NEW YORK HOME. THE
FIFTH AVENUE CHURCH'S HISTORY. THE REUNION.
IDEALS OF EDUCATION. IDEALS IN PREACHING. IMMEDIATE
SUCCESS. METHODS. PASTORAL WORK.

IT was a beautiful warm autumn day when
after a long, but on the whole pleasant trip,
the extra Cunard Steamship Aleppo brought
my father and his family to the dock at New
York. A long-trusted and loved housekeeper
and two servants accompanied the party. The
four little boys all arrayed in Scotch caps and the
belts and blouses worn in those days by school
children in Ireland, but unknown in America, are
said to have attracted an attention of which the
wearers were happily unconscious. Nothing
could have exceeded the kindness and thought-
fulness of those who had made provision for the
comfort of the future minister. The dwelling-
house was in every way suitable, and was most
fitly furnished. In a letter of that year (9th of
December, 1867), the impressions made are de-
scribed in a letter to Dr. Hamilton IVlagee :
193

194

THE MINISTRY IN

My Dear Friend:

As I write in the dining-room, the living-room of our house,
for here the drawing-room is called " parlor," you and the other
brethren look down on me from over the clock, and recall all
the days and evenings of labor and enjoyment in Dublin. The
Lord's goodness has been signal and conspicuous. I feel as
much at home as if the weeks had been months, to say the least
of it. Our communion — held yesterday — was exceedingly
pleasant, very like Rutland Square, only that the afternoon
time is given to it. We received about thirty new communi-
cants, nearly twenty of them on profession of faith which, in
some instances is made at an age we should count childhood at
home. I have begun with ordinary sermons that I might not
pitch the standard of expectation higher than I could honestly
keep up — have eschewed all attempts at sensationalism, and told
the people that our reliance must be upon the steady, patient
teaching of divine truth. So far the Church displays all the
signs of interest. The building is comfortable ; the elders, I
think right-minded men, and I suppose I have heard as many
as twenty or thirty laymen offer up prayer in public very ap-
propriately. There is a fine field here for work, and a readi-
ness I think to value an evangelical ministry. I hope to begin
a down-town mission service on Friday evenings — we live " up-
tovifn." This I find surprises the folk, the approved way
hitherto being for the up-town people to pay students, etc., to do
this work. Mission-schools are the hobby of our congregation,
and they are good, but skilled labor is a little wanted. I hope
to begin my Bible-class for ladies by the opening of the year.
Preparation is no more difficult here than at home, and I have
written several sermons — strange as it may seem — since I
came !

Now I want you to tell the dear brethren of the ministers'
meeting — that I am trying to be what they would have me (be)
as their representative in New York. . . .
Ever, my dear Hamilton,

Your affectionate friend,

J. Hall.

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 195

The Church itself had had a most honorable
history which perhaps had up to that time
reached its climax in the long and most success-
ful ministry of Dr. James Alexander, the imme-
diate predecessor of Dr. Rice, whose failing health,
and, perhaps, supposed southern sympathies, had
prevented his undoubted worth and ability being
fully recognized. The war had closed, and many
southern people found themselves attracted by
the theology of the Old School to which wing the
Church naturally had belonged, and by the fact
that Dr. Rice did not say anything that was likely
to wound their feelings. There were however
also intensely northern partisans. It was the
good fortune of the Church to secure as a min-
ister one who could unite both wings. The con-
gregation had worshipped in several buildings.
The old Cedar Street Church having been built in
1808. Then the Church moved to Duane Street,
which building was erected in 1835. In 1852 a
new building on Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth
Street was entered, and in this building my father
began his New York ministry. The Church still
is used having been moved stone by stone to
Fifty-seventh Street near Eighth Avenue, where
with some changes it stands as in the former
days. The traditions of the Church carried it

196 THE MINISTRY IN

over to the Old School, but in the congregation
were New School men, attracted by the elo-
quence and the learning of Dr. Alexander. Here
again it was my father's good fortune to be iden-
tified in no way with the old dispute. Naturally
attracted to the older theology, he found much
that was sympathetic in the warmer evangelical
spirit of the New School thought. Of Albert
Barnes he once wrote : '

"And then came the end of Albert Barnes'
labors. It was like the life that preceded it, life
and death of a piece. Meek, laborious, system-
atic, gentle, he sat in the chair of a departed
friend to give comfort to the survivors, when the
Lord's messenger touched him, and said, 'Arise,
and follow me;' and he arose and entered
through the gates into the city, wondering, we
may well believe, whether it was a vision, or
whether that was true which was done by the
angel. But it was soon all real ; all happy ; all
homelike; 'absent from the body, and at home
with the Lord.' "

For Dr. William Adams' affection and admira-
tion mingled from their first meeting at the New
School Assembly in Rochester in 1867 to the close
of Dr. Adams' life. The stately dignity of the

1 The A?nerican Messenger, March, 187 1.

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 197

man, together with the gentle pervasive courtesy
in tone and manner that so distinguished the
great New School leader, appealed with special
power to my father. Quite frequently, particu-
larly in his earlier experience in America he was
offended by the "slap-dash, slap-on-the-back "
(as he called it) type of minister, who mistakes
rude familiarity for ease, and substitutes brusque-
ness for straightforwardness. He had been
naturally thrown as a delegate from Ireland into
connection with both Assemblies, and the at-
tachments thus formed he used to good effect in
the following years of rapid approach on the
part of the two Assemblies.

Already in 1867 men were talking about a pos-
sible reunion of the Church. It was impossible
for one coming so recently to the country to take
with good grace any leading part in such a move-
ment. Yet it was with earnest and hopeful
solicitude that he watched each step towards such
a consummation, and no one rejoiced more sin-
cerely in the ultimate result than did the new-
comer to American shores. The union was com-
pleted in 1869 when at Pittsburg the two As-
semblies came together, and on the plan of
mutual forbearance and reasonable liberty the
Church became one. In accordance with his in-

198 THE MINISTRY IN

stincts my father turned at once to the United
Church for a better support for educational insti-
tutions, and particularly for a larger and deeper
conception of the culture and learning needed in
the ministry. In an appeal to the United Church,
headed, "What Next?" he urged the chief ad-
vantages of the reunion. He asked in the
columns of the Evangelist,

"And for what are we one ? To overshadow
or absorb other churches ? No. That were a
poor and unchristian ambition. Let our Metho-
dist brethren cry aloud ' ye must be born again,'
and sanctify social sympathies; let our Congrega-
tional friends assert all human liberties under
divine lordship — the very freaks of their free-
dom are better than the decay and decency of
despotism; let our Baptist brethren make the
wilderness a pool of water; let our evangelical
Episcopalians — we have nothing to say for the
other sort — make prayer common everywhere.
They are all needed by the country, needed with
us, perhaps, to present the full-orbed truth. Let
them all render their parts in the anthem of
American praise to Jehovah. When they all sing
their loudest, many places are still silent; and in
many their voice is not heard. Be our aim to
swell the cry — not to silence other voices. We

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 199

have a share in their graces and successes, and
they in ours, by that prerogative of saints, ' all
things are yours'; and if we turn our union to
true and spiritual account, they ought all to be the
better for it.

" One thing seems by common consent agreed
upon, that the colleges and seminaries of the
Church must be placed upon a better foundation.
We are now employing the first men in the
country, on incomes shamefully inadequate. It
is vain to expect that talent and culture can be
long retained in our service under the pressure of
cares that belittle and vex; and that vex specially
the best order of minds — minds that do not give
a thought to the privations of poverty, but are
chafed by its meanness, by enforced small sa-
vings and compulsory checks upon every generous
aspiration.

" The ministry of the Word has similar just
ground of complaint. But nine out of ten min-
isters will not teach their people duty on this
matter. How many ministers of the Presbyte-
rian Church have fairly expounded to their people
I Cor. 9 ? The press must speak out on this
subject, and laymen must take it in hand. The
better-supported ministers, too, who can speak
on this point without the suspicion or appearance

200 THE MINISTRY IN

of pleading their own cause, must come to the
help, not of their brethren, but of the church
they serve. It is worth considering whether ef-
fort judiciously and successfully laid out here,
would not set the ministry free of ill conditions
that now repel some who could educate them-
selves, and so swell the incomes of our educa-
tional institutions, and promote other desirable
objects. Promptly and frankly invited to the
columns of The Evangelist, in the spirit of the
union, it would be a great joy and honor to the
present writer if he could make any contribution
to the Church's efficiency in these directions."

In another place he ventured to criticise the
methods by which students were helped into the
ministry; methods which he could not but feel
undermined their self-respect, and jeopardized
their standing in the community. Dr. Hodge
took him very sharply to task for his opinions on
this subject, but they remained his opinions to
the end.

Very early in his ministry good ladies asked
him to read a notice from the pulpit asking for
cast-off clothing for the theological students at
Princeton. He refused to do it, and explained
his reasons. To him it seemed unworthy of the
manhood and womanhood of the church to treat

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 201

those who were to be leaders and teachers as ob-
jects of a careless charity of this kind. He had
no objection to the church training her ministry,
but her methods he thought altogether wrong,
and traced to those methods much of the restless-
ness and inefficiency among the ministers and
churches. It was a habit of his to watch the
news column of the weekly religious press, and
when he saw that the " Rev. Mr. A. of Boom-
town had had a most remarkable ministry full of
success, and had just added thirty souls to the
communion roll," he said he expected soon either
a note asking his aid in a change for Mr. A. or a
paragraph stating that the Rev. Mr. A. contem-
plated a period of rest after his labors.

One of the things which he mourned and be-
wailed in common with Dr. Adams was the
crowd of relatively irresponsible book agents,
insurance solicitors, and unattached ministers
who filled up the presbyteries, and destroyed
often the fraternal confidence which alone makes
the presbytery an efficient body. It remained
also his opinion to the end that Professors of
Theology should be admitted as active elders to
the churches, and that only so should they have
full recognition in the counsels of the church.
The flitting of ministers he attributed to the fault

202 THE MINISTRY IN

of both churches and pastors. Many ministers,
he said, reminded him of the little sparrows on
the roof which keep their wings twitching all the
time ready at any time to fly on the slightest im-
pulse.

My father thought very highly of American
speaking. He was wont to contrast English
speaking with the American type of easy natural
address, such as is so often heard on the plat-
form or at the dinner-table. He did not think so
highly of American preaching, highly as he es-
timated the best preachers. Very gently he
sought to intimate as much in his early ministry.
After the reunion he wrote an article that was
much quoted on "What the reunion could not
do." The italics in the selection from it are his
own. In it among other things he said:

"There are many desirable objects which the
United Church cannot effect by any direct agency.
She cannot, for example, make all her ministers
good preachers. If a man is inclined to air his
vocabulary or indulge in metaphysical specula-
tion, in his sermons, he will not be immediately
altered by being in the United Church. Or if he
cultivate 'simplicity' until it becomes childish-
ness, or mistake foolish preaching for 'the fool-
ishness of preaching,' the union will not instantly

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 203

change him. This is a matter outside the power
of the General Assemblies. Presbyteries indeed
can use greater care in admitting to the place of
preachers those who are destitute of the power
to preach; but as regards those of us who are
licensed, our preaching must depend on our con-
gregations first, and secondly on ourselves. If
our people weary and harass us with a multiplic-
ity of small matters they could better manage
themselves; if they demand that we swell the
pomp of every social gathering, sit through every
committee, and be on hand generally for any-
thing and everything, then we shall be inferior
preachers. The same unhappy end can be
reached by forcing a portion of our strength
away from our work, as for example, to the ac-
quirement of further means of living, or the pain-
ful and anxious economy of what we have.

" Much depends on ourselves. If we live
mainly among books and little among men; if
we defer the severe labor of composition till the
end of the week, and then think how to get re-
spectably through for the Sabbath, intending to
do better next week ; if we take no pains to
know the points at which we and the message
we carry can come into contact with the minds
of our hearers; then plainly our preaching power

204 THE MINISTRY IN

will be small, even though the union were a
thousand times more glorious than it is. But our
preaching power is our real power, and there is
not one among us that will not own that he
could have made much more of it. While there-
fore the great event of our time cannot in this re-
spect improve us, it were surely a good time for
our people and ourselves to seek that improve-
ment. A living church will always be a preach-
ing Church. The decay of the pulpit goes hand
in hand with the decay of piety, partly as cause,
and partly as effect. We shall be strong when
men shall feel that where the church is Presby-
terian, the strong presumption is that there will
be in it thoroughly good preaching."

As a preacher his own success in New York
was instantaneous. In the letter already quoted
(page 194) to his friend Dr. Magee he dwells
upon the simplicity which adorned his preaching
to the end. His first sermon was preached on
November the 3d on the text Isa. 52 : 7, " How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him
that bringeth good tidings, etc." The sermon
dwelt upon the poetical character of the passage,
and the beauty of the language, then expounded
the substance of the message — a message of
peace, through forgiveness of sin and loving re-

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 205

lations established in Christ Jesus. This early
preaching was characteristic of the preaching of
the lifetime. Old sermons were often refused,
and my father not only did not despise repreach-
ing of sermons but thought that the self-criticism
of the process, if the second preparation was as
conscientious as it ought to be, was an actual
benefit both to the preacher and his people.
Later in Hfe he published his volume on "God's
word through preaching" in the "Lyman
Beecher Lecture " course before the Yale Theo-
logical Seminary, in which he set forth fully his
views of preaching in method and spirit. He
also wrote at one time an interesting little auto-
biographical sketch of his pulpit progress, of
which a few extracts are appended.

"Among the gifted professors of the Theolog-
ical Seminary," he writes, "of which I enjoyed
the advantages were two men of conspicuous
prominence as preachers. Dr. Henry Cooke and
Dr. John Edgar were unlike in style and manner,
but each enjoyed the public confidence and com-
manded the attention of the community. They
were not only instructors in principles and in
methods; they were examples and inspirers. No
minister of prominence in the Presbyterian
Church of Ireland, of that day, read his manu-

2o6 THE MINISTRY IN

script in the pulpit. A certain proportion of its
six hundred pastors, at the present time how-
ever, read carefully prepared discourses.

" It was the rule of the classes for the student to
receive texts, and to preach from them before the
professor and the class, and to receive such criti-
cism from the professor upon arrangement, mat-
ter, and manner, as he felt to be proper. The
sermons were commonly memorized and given
verbally as written. Reading was not the order
of those — to the preacher, solemn occasions.

" We were not, of course, taught that memori-
zing the language was to be our enduring method,
but that careful writing contributed to order,
clearness, correctness of description, and definite-
ness. All my experience since my student-days
confirms that impression.

"My ministry began, and continued for three
years, in somewhat peculiar conditions, the con-
'gregations consisting of the Protestant Gentry,
not Presbyterians, a few Presbyterians, and the
majority not only not used to Protestant, but
many of them not used to the English language.
It was necessary to prepare to speak in such a
way as to interest the educated and at the same
time to be intelligible to the rest of the hearers.
It was not uncommon to deliver a carefully pre-

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 207

pared sermon in the forenoon, to go, frequently
on foot, seven or eight miles in the afternoon,
and repeat it to a corresponding congregation, in
the evening. The experience of the morning
sometimes led to modifications in the evening.
What seemed to be obscure to the hearers in the
morning was clarified as much as possible in the
delivery to the evening hearers.

" It appeared to be my duty, at length, to come
from the ' West of Ireland ' to my native coun-
try, and take charge of the First Presbyterian
Church, in succession to a pastor of great culture
and of high character. The congregation in-
cluded a large portion of the educated people of
the city, and the rest — one half the congregation
— consisted of comfortable farmers all around it,
within a radius of two to three miles. The same
necessity existed for sermons that would be edi-
fying to the city people without being ' over the
heads' of the rural members. The writing of
the sermons went on as before, but with a little
less reproduction in speaking of the language as
written. The topics were selected early in the
week. It was needful to go into the rural dis-
tricts for week evening sermons, in schoolhouses
and in farmers' houses, and while preparation
was made for discourses for these meetings, it

2o8 THE MINISTRY IN

was less formal than for the Lord's day, consist-
ing of 'abstracts,' or 'notes,' with a system of
contractions both of sentences and of words, of
my own invention.

" It was then common to arrange topics in a
series, so that preparation in reading could be
carried on in advance, and also to have one of the
two services expository — a method of teaching
which many people need, and which saves the
pastor from the dreary soliloquy, ' 1 wonder
what 1 should preach on next Sabbath.' The
expositions did not require as much writing, but
quite as much study, as did the sermons; and it
was found to be a help to regular attendance by
the best of the people, when they naturally said:
' I would hke to hear the rest of what he has to
say on that line,' of subjects or of an Epistle, or
a minor prophet.

"After half-a-dozen happy years in the capital
of my native county, at the urgent request of
brethren to whom I looked up, I was removed
to the capital of my native land, to be colleague
to a saintly pastor whose name I write down
with affectionate remembrance, Rev. Wm. B.
Kirkpatrick, D. D. For the first year or two 1
had only to preach once each Sabbath in our own
pulpit, but my brethren of various denominations

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 209

were very good to me, and afforded opportunities
to preach when I was not needed in our Mary's
Abbey.

" It is proper to say — as already mentioned that
every word is not written down, nor every word
in full. One learns to contract sentences, keep-
ing in its place every determining word, and to
contrast also, familiar words. One incidental
advantage of this it may be allowable to mention.
When a gentlemanly reporter asks for the sermon
the true reply : ' I write out, but with a system
of abbreviation a printer could not use,' is 'a
saving' — in several directions.'

" It would be natural to say: 'What is the use
of writing in this way?' The answer I give
might not be pertinent in other cases. The
writer can only speak for himself. One has
often general ideas, indefinite views partly from
the feeling, partly from the judgment. To put
them down distinctly tends to remove the nebu-
lous element, and makes them communicable ;
for how can an audience catch an idea which the
speaker cannot put into lucid expression ?
Conciseness is thus produced, and the mind is
helped to follow the natural sequence of ideas.
What one sees under heads 1, 11, and 111, with
perhaps, orderly items (i), (2), (3), and practical

210 THE MINISTRY IN

applications (a), (b), (c), will usually be more
orderly, easier of recollection, and more intelligi-
ble than would be an extemporaneous address
however much thought out. There is moreover —
the writer now speaks for himself — a certain relief
to the mind when one can say to his own con-
science: 'It is a poor sermon for such a grand
theme, but it is the best that I can do.' It may
not be improper to add that 1 have, many a time,
outlined the topics for thanksgiving, confession,
and petition in prayer, so as to give the best ex-
pression 1 could to what the people should, and
would, join in presenting before the Father's
throne."

The building at Nineteenth Street was soon
packed at each service. Camp-chairs were placed
down each aisle. The inconvenience to pew-
holders of the coming of strangers into their
pews gave rise to complaint; and promptly six
of the most influential, and one or two of them
the oldest, members in the session and board of
trustees took upon themselves the task of seat-
ing the strangers, and made in many ways the
church one of the pleasantest to visit. When
Mr. Robert L. Stewart or Mr. Henry Day asked
any one if they could seat a stranger, a refusal
was given only in case of disagreeable necessity.

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 211

The services being in the morning and after-
noon, my father preached almost regularly on
Sunday evenings in some other church, and his
voice was soon familiar in almost all the Evangel-
ical Churches of New York and Brooklyn.

Into the New York pastorate was brought the
same systematic pastoral work that had marked
his Dublin and Armagh periods. Day after day
he sought out the members of his flock, high and
low, visiting with caretaking system family after
family, watching over those employed in house-
holds with the same diligence as those who em-
ployed. From time to time he visited the busi-
ness section of the city, and although seldom
sitting down, he yet visited the offices of the
business and professional men. He liked to
know, he said, where and how they work. The
sick he visited regularly, and doctors who are
often and, sometimes reasonably, suspicious of
ministers' visits to their serious cases, have told
the writer that they made exception in the case
of my father, whose low accents and ready
tact and short ministrations encouraged and
strengthened and soothed, where less skillful or
sympathetic visitation would have excited and
done harm.

For purely social engagements he had no time.

212 THE MINISTRY IN

The number of houses where he ever dined in
a formal social way could be numbered on his
fingers. He felt in later life, that he perhaps had
neglected opportunities along this line. Yet he
never saw exactly what other course, under
the circumstances, he could have pursued. That
that which is known as the " social world " was
altogether out of his range and knowledge he
felt with some degree of sadness.

All that was harmless and innocent he thought
should be in contact with the religious life,
yet many things he was opposed to, which
Christian feeling he deeply respected considered
innocent. Thus he never thought the theatre
anything but an evil, and though fond of music,
even if in an untrained way, yet he never went
where he thought the prejudices of any would
be offended, and when abroad he always resisted
the inducements often held out to him by friends
to go to the opera, unwilling to do abroad what
he would not do at home.

Yet he had abundant charity when he was sure
that Christian judgment was convinced that an-
other course was proper. "I am not a police-
man," he once said to one who playfully con-
fessed a fondness for the theatre, "I am only an
adviser. 1 advise you not to go, but to your

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 213

Saviour alone you stand or fall in such matters;
I may be wrong." And once writing in the
Christian Intelligencer he put the case strongly,
saying:

"Let us not as Christian ministers under-
take to pronounce upon amusements, discrimina-
ting which is good, which is bad, and when an
innocent becomes a sinful game. For one thing,
we have more dignified work to do than to
measure the comparative qualities of all the pas-
times of the people, from 'fox and goose' up-
ward or downward. For another, our oracle
will be construed in ways we never intended.
We approve, for example, of square dances, not
of round. Well, the devil will soon put the
mischievous elements of the dance we condemn
into that we approve; and we are now in a
worse case than before, for the evil proceeds
with our approval, and we cannot turn dancing-
masters to oppose it, nor be always on hand to
point it out.

"For yet another thing, this plan minimises
Christian people. ' Our minister allows so and
so;' 'Our pastor disapproves of so and so.'
What! have you no judgment, no conscience, no
Bible ? or are they packed away like children's
knives, lest they should cut their innocent fingers.

214 THE MINISTRY IN

while a clerical mamma, or a Rev. ' Father' does
all the serious cutting ? Let me be a preacher, a
teacher, a writer, if I can; but let me never be-
come that compound of vanity, ambition, love of
power, misguided zeal and distorted religion, ' a
spiritual director.' We are helpers of the peo-
ple's faith. Saintliness as well as sex forbids our
being degraded into duennas."

Many thought on account of his firm views on
such subjects that they had to be hypocrites to
him. But that was not the case. Some of his
dearest friends differed from him and he had
only to be sure that they were acting con-
scientiously, and for him the matter was settled.
He might think them mistaken, but he left the
final decision to themselves.

For his judgment in even business matters men
versed in such things had a profound respect.
As he went in and out as a pastor his worth as a
friend and helpful adviser was recognized. His
correspondence up to the day of his death reveals
the thousand avenues of his influence as his
counsel was sought for far and wide. In his
pastoral work he sought to bring forward the
spiritual interests he had at heart. Where it was
possible and it could be tactfully done he sought
to have prayer with those whom he visited. Of

NINETEENTH STREET CHURCH 215

course in a great city this was not always pos-
sible. But sooner or later on occasion of trouble
or loss or difficulty he came as the bearer of a
message into nearly every family of his congre-
gation. And even after the first shock had laid
the foundation for the trouble that ended his life,
he toiled patiently up high flights of stairs, often,
in vain, seeking those who sometimes had but
the barest claims upon his ministry. A physi-
cian who knew him only by sight was deeply
moved in the spring of 1898 by seeing him lean-
ing heavily and breathlessly on the balustrade
toiling up three flights of stairs he should never
have attempted to climb, as he sought out some
one to whom he was bringing his message of
peace and hope.

IX. THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING
AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE

THE SILENT TOWER'

BY REV. GEORGE W. BUNGAY

It rises in silence and splendor

In the light of a better day ;
The lesson is touching and tender

To the sufferers over the way.

It points to the bells that are ringing

In heaven, unheard here below,
Where the choir celestial is singing

Near the throne that is whiter than snow.

The music of silence is sweeter

Than the ringing of bells in towers ;

It chords with the cadence whose metre
Is sweet as the wind-harp in flowers.

By the couches where patients are sleeping,

And dreaming of visions above,
Two angels their vigils are keeping —

One is Mercy, the other is Love.

Not even the clock that's revealing

The passing away of the hour.
Can disturb with dolorous pealing,

Since Love struck it dumb in the tower.

* Dr. John Hall's people refrained from hanging a bell in the tower of
their church, and would not even suffer the clock to strike, lest the pa-
tients in St. Luke's Hospital, then opposite, should be disturbed.

2l8

IX

THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING AND ENLARGING
INFLUENCE

NEIV YORK'S CHANCES. THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING.
FELLOW-WORKERS IN THE CONGREGATION. OUTSIDE AC-
TIVITIES. EDUCATION. HOME MISSIONS. SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.
POWERS ^S lA DEBATOR. CHURCH EXTENSION <AND CITY
MISSIONS. LITERARY WORK ^ND AMBITIONS. THEOLOGY.

NEW YORK in the years between 1867 and
1870 was in many respects a very different
city from tiie Greater New York of to-day. Nor
is the new city altogether an improvement. The
whole scale of living was simpler. The extremes
of poverty only began to be apparent after 1873,
and the city itself, if wholly lacking in architec-
tural attractiveness, had yet an air of comfortable
sufficiency written on even its byways. Even
the gaudy Bowery, in those days the climax of
rough looseness of life, was neither so squalid
nor so repulsive as are similar situations in the
greater city. At the same time there was writ-
ten then on the face of New York the fact that the
period was one of transition. The "old in-
habitants" whose fishing stories included Canal

Street in their hunting-grounds, felt that the
219

220 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

movement up-town was not going to stop at
Twenty-third Street. The insufficiency of the
building at Nineteenth Street and Fifth Avenue to
contain the congregation was made clear from
the very first. In the beginning it was felt that
the increase might perhaps be temporary, but
the pastoral work that followed up the preaching
made the pressure on the pews only greater from
week to week. Moreover the visiting was more
and more " up-town," and the drift of the popu-
lation was manifest. At the same time Central
Park seemed to supply a natural barrier, and
when at last the demand for more room became
imperative, many asked themselves, where can
we go and be safe for years to come ? The an-
swer to that question was not easy to give, and
caused delay for some time. Many, and those
thoughtful men, wanted simply to stay and build
on the old site a larger church. Others thought
that the neighborhood of Forty-first Street was
as far up as the congregation could with safety
go. At first a small number, but a graduately
increasing one, decided that if the church moved
it should move ahead of the centre of present
population, and that by going near to the Central
Park a fair permanency might be obtained.
This view my father shared. He felt however

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 221

that under all the circumstances the congregation
must take the responsibility of any change.

Already in July of the year 1868 there had come
to the old Nineteenth Street Church the enterpri-
sing owner of the family weekly paper which
had then the widest circulation of any family
paper in America, if not in the world. Mr. Rob-
ert Bonner was of Scotch-Irish blood, and a man
of prodigious energy and wonderful discernment
and knowledge of men and things. He was at
once attracted to my father and the two men, in
many ways utterly unlike, became fast and life-
long friends. He at once flung himself quietly
but most efficiently into the affairs of the church.
He was known and utterly trusted by the group
of men, who one by one were taken away from
the counsels of the church by death, until at last
he remained well-nigh the only survivor at the
time of my father's own decease. He was known
all over the world as the owner of "Dexter " the
famous trotter whose record has been beaten, but
whose fame has never been surpassed. He how-
ever had tried to explain to my father in a playful
letter that he never trotted his horses for money,
and never had them raced. Far-seeing and reso-
lute Mr. Bonner had made up his mind very early
just where the church should be built, and in

222 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

quiet talks with those who had been longer in
the church he succeeded in getting a number to
share his views. He was moreover of the opin-
ion advanced by Mr. R. L. Stuart, at that time
the most influential officer in the church, that
when the new building was undertaken it should
be both in extent and character worthy of Pres-
byterianism in the metropolitan city of the East.
By 1872 the plans were well under way, and in
a congregational meeting the resolution had
already been carried, with practical unanimity to
go up-town. Real estate was at that time counted
high, and the price of the lots seemed to many
enormous, although they could not now be
bought, probably, for anything Hke the sum then
paid. The plans for the building that now stands
on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fifth
Street were approved and bonds were issued to
secure the necessary funds. The correspondence
of the years 1872 to 1877 are filled with the plans
and pains attendant upon so large an enterprise.
To "own a pew" meant in the Old World
tradition family possession with the payment of
a yearly tithe. This plan had been adopted
with reference to the Nineteenth Street building,
hence when the change was contemplated the
"owners" of pews, in distinction from those

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 223

simply renting them yearly from the trustees, in
the old building had already claims for "owner-
ship " in the pews of the new structure. In some
ways this was felt to be unfortunate by several,
yet on the other hand the plans for a change
were fostered by those who were bound by the
old tradition, and who felt they had a life inter-
est in the material side of the church organiza-
tion.

The building committee was a strong body of
able men; the plans were made on a liberal scale,
and the building was started. In spite of the fact
that the panic of 1873 found many of the congre-
gation financially imperilled, and notwithstanding
the losses all suffered in the falling prices, the
building proceeded steadily and was occupied in
1875.

By this time my father had also removed
his residence to No. 3 West Fifty-sixth Street,
which house became the parsonage from that
time until later lots were bought next the
church, in part to protect its light and appearance,
and on those lots a parsonage was then built.
The debt, however, hanging over the church was
a burden on my father's heart. Many were in-
clined to let " another generation" bear some of
the burdens. The minister felt the infelicity of

224 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

such a course. He feared a possible vacancy in
the pastoral office, and dreaded the ill-effects of a
large debt on other churches. He found also that
the benevolences of the church might suffer.
Hence he strained his influence with the congre-
gation to the utmost, and having the hearty
support of Mr. Robert Bonner, whose total gifts
far exceeded those of any other single individual,
the debt was paid in the spring of 1877. This
closing of the debt account was felt to begin a
new era of activity. From this on the church
became the centre of untold streams of influence,
and the incessant labors of the pastor seemed to
have no end and no limit.

No sketch of my father's life would be accord-
ing to his mind and heart without some record of
that group of men who shared his earliest ministry
in New York, and who remained his warm and en-
thusiastic supporters until death took them one by
one from each other. The two brothers Mr. R. L.
and Alexander Stuart were among the first to
welcome the young Irish delegate in 1867, and
became warm advocates of the policy of calling
him to America. The wealth at their disposal
they gave freely and thoughtfully. They both
had peculiarities, such as are often found in men
of those earlier days, but they remained to the

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 225

end of their lives faitliful and wise friends of my
father. To Mr. Henry Day he was also devo-
tedly attached; like Mr. De Forest, Mr. Henry
Day stood openly upon a theological ground
broader than was the tradition of the church.
But for such differences my father had but little
interest; he saw in the men the Christ-life, and
honored it under other theological terms, while
holding fast and deeming of importance his
own theological forms. Very early Mr. William
Walker was taken from the side of his pastor,
and he was sorely missed. He was a peculiarly
outspoken man, although gentle almost to weak-
ness, and with him my father had profound
spiritual sympathies. They shared some hopes
and fears for the church together, about which
my father seldom spoke to any other of his offi-
cers. Upon Mr. William Sloane also my father
leaned for many things. He honored Mr. Sloane's
faithful personal services. As the treasurer of
the church he did with his own hand in the
midst of an exceedingly busy I'fe, work he re-
fused to entrust to any clerk, as he felt it was of
a highly confidential nature. Mr. William Skid-
more too was one who stood closely to the in-
terests of the church, and was near my father in
all counsels. There were others, some of his

226 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

early advisers and friends God lias spared in His
goodness, to tiiis day, and otliers lil^e Mr. H. M.
Alexander survived him by only a little while.

The entrance into the new building was fol-
lowed by an immediate increase in the work en-
tailed upon the pastor. The visiting became
even more difficult as it stretched from Washing-
ton Square far up-town past the Central Park.
To make the visitation more efficient the plan
was adopted, of reading from the pulpit the
streets in which the pastor expected to visit dur-
ing the week. It was one of the discourage-
ments of his later ministry that the pastoral
visitation did not seem to him as effective or as
much sought after as before the great scattering
of the city, and the changes that have taken place
in the mode of living of the people. These
changes were going on very rapidly. The steady
quiet life that was characteristic of the so many
American homes in the earlier period exists, no
doubt, to-day, but the showy luxurious life of a
great wasteful cosmopolitan city is what is on
the surface; is seen daily, and affects sooner or
later all classes.

It was to my father, as probably to many
another thoughtful city minister, a source of
anxiety that the home training no longer seemed

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 227

to him to emphasize properly the religious ele-
ment. This was undoubtedly an increasing anx-
iety as the congregation grew larger and larger
and less and less homogeneous.

The expense of the church was, of course, a
matter of remark and of some criticism. This
criticism my father always considered thought-
less and short-sighted. By nature he was inter-
ested in and attached to institutions. He saw in
the institutional life of the Presbyterian church a
tremendous force. That force could only be felt,
he realized, in a great and growing city by an
institutional life worthy in external character of
the life it represented. It was not needless dis-
play, but a harmony between the external and
the inner life which attracted him in the plans for
a permanent building of larger proportions than
the ordinary church life demands. The building
represented to him the place he felt Presbyterian-
ism should have in the forming of the city life,
and in the moulding of future character. Into
the new building he built his own life and heart,
not for his own sake, but for the sake of that
which was dearer to him than life.

The sale of the pews took place on a Monday
night and on Tuesday the following characteristic
note from Mr. Bonner announced the result-

228 THE NEV/ CHURCH BUILDING

Tuesday tiioriting, iSyj.

Dear Dr. Hall :

Five hundred and twenty thousand dollars for one hun-
dred and ninety-one pews! Nothing like it was ever known.
At least, so they all say. It was too late last night, when we
ascertained the result, or John A., and R. B., would have been
over at your house to congratulate you. As Napoleon said,
" Much has been done, but much yet remains to do."

In Dr. James W. Alexander's " Familiar Letters " he has
several passages about the Nineteenth Street church building
when it was new which I think will interest you. I presume
you have his " Letters " ; but I have marked several passages
in my volume, so that you can see them at a glance. See
pages 178, 179, 180, 181, 182 and 183.

We are all delighted with the result. The most sanguine of
us did not expect over ^30,000 in premiums, and yet we had
over ^74,000 for the privilege of taking pews at those high
prices ! Ever yours,

Robert Bonner.

The building was largely paid for by the en-
ergy of a few. In a note, intended to restrain in
a playful way any tendency to excessive exulta-
tion, IVlr. Bonner sent later the following calcula-
tions with regard to the sources of the income:

May 8th, 1877.
My dear Dr. Hall :

Inasmuch as you have asked me, I will answer frankly
that I do not think you have any particular reason for " brag-
ging " much of the work that your " people " have done in pay-
ing off the debt.

Let us look at the facts : Figures in this case will not lie.
Before we entered the new church, we raised exactly S180,-
222.09; and now we have had subscribed, including collection,
^148,174.00, — making from all sources a total of 1328,996.09

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 229

that has been given to the church. This, of course, has no
reference to receipts from sales of pews ; but it is all that has
ever been given. Now, of this entire sum I find that WilUam
Sloan has given $50,000 ; R. L. and A. Stuart ^65,000 ; R. B.
$131,000 — making from three parties alone, $246,000, If you
take $246,000 from $328,996.09, you have only $82,996.09
left ; — but even of this sum the pastor and his family contributed
$3,427.88 ; so that all which your "people" (three parties only
e.vcepted) have ever given under any and all circumstances, for
the viillion-dollar church, amounts to just $79,568.21. Not
much in my judgment, (which you ask), to " brag" of.

The congregations at once filled the building.
At first it was thought that after a little while the
congregations would fall off — curiosity having
been satisfied. This was not the case. The
faithful pastoral work that followed up the
preaching secured ever increasing strength to the
permanent worshippers, and Sunday after Sun-
day throughout the winter months great au-
diences listened to the simple straightforward
preaching that remained substantially the same
in message and character from the beginning to
the end.

Here may be the place to speak of the outside
work that fell to the lot of the minister of so
large a church. It was often an amazement to
those who had correspondence with him, how
the pastor of the Fifth Avenue church could do
his work without a secretary. The extent of the

230 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

correspondence was enormous. Every activity
in which he had an interest brought with it in-
numerable notes, requests, demands of one sort
or another. From the first all letters were an-
swered by himself, and with the exception of
three winters, when the writer cared for his cor-
respondence in part, and two winters when he
had outside help in arranging all his papers, he
cared for all his writing with his own pen. To
the last he wrote the same firm, rapid, legible
handwriting which made his little "night
school" on the old farm a much sought circle.

His interest in education was intelligent and
keen. Perhaps his experience from the days of
that boyish experiment in some degree accounts
for this interest. Very early he began to raise
his voice in favor of more thorough education in
the United States. He defended the public
school system of New York in days when the
undue preponderance of Irish Roman Catholics
of an earnest but ignorant type attacked it with
some show of success. This was the same bat-
tle for "Godless" education as even good Prot-
estants called it, which he had fought in Ireland.

When the reunion of the Old and New School
Assemblies took place he was given a representa-
tive responsibility in the Board of Directors of

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 231

Union Theological Seminary. He was also a
trustee of Princeton College, and had a good deal
to do with obtaining Dr. McCosh as president of
that institution. In Princeton Seminary he was
also deeply interested, and rejoiced at the warm
support given that school of learning by Mr. and
Mrs. Stuart. After Dr. Hodge had forgiven him
for his heresies on the subject of eleemosynary
education, the affinity in theology drew the two
men together, and the warm and kindly temper
of Dr. Hodge was always highly praised when-
ever he spoke on the subject.

Along another line quite outside the individual
Church much strength and time was given from
the first by the newcomer to American shores.
He found the Sunday-school instruction beyond
all description bad. It is weak and Superficial
enough now, but then it was far worse. The
International Sunday-school Series had his warm-
est support and advocacy. In fact the Interna-
tional character was largely due to his influence
and exertions. From the beginning he sat with
the committee on the lessons, and week after
week wrote expositions of those lessons for the
Sunday-school World, the organ of the Ameri-
can Sunday-school Union. In later life he went
off the committee and felt in some degree that

232 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

the International Lessons had served their pur-
pose. He was loyal- to the General Assembly's
decision to establish a Sunday-school Board, at
the same time he had given so much time and
strength to the Interdenominational Sunday-
school work that to the end this aspect had his
most hearty sympathy. One whole summer he
devoted to a tour on behalf of the work of
the Sunday-school Union, and visited all the
larger places of Iowa, Kansas, Illinois and on into
Michigan working with Mr. Ensign, and hold-
ing night after night great meetings the effects
of which are yet felt in the western work.

One of the impressions he records on that trip
was of a lack of really highly cultured young
women as teachers, a lack more felt then perhaps
than now, and he took a warm interest in the work
of the colleges for women. He had prejudices
against coeducaton, even where he saw it was
inevitable, but as trustee for Wellesley and as
preacher to other such institutions he did what
he could to show his sense of the need of high-
class intellectual work for women.

Much against the advice of some very near to
him, he refused to acquiesce in the hopelessness
with which some had come to regard the New
York University. His friend Dr. Howard Crosby

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 233

had without any compensation, and with much
energy and tact conducted the affairs of the Uni-
versity as chancellor. He at last became, my
father thought, unnecessarily discouraged, and
the institution was in actual danger. With the
new church on his hands and all the other duties
to do, it seemed quite impossible for him to as-
sume a new responsibility. But he did. With
the title of chancellor pro tern, he at once took
hold, and raised enough to insure the existence
of the institution. Then he summoned to his aid
Dr. MacCracken, who became vice-chancellor,
and as soon as the reins were in his hands re-
lieved my father of responsibility along those
lines. This was in the year 1881, and he only
retired from the position in 1891, when the ob-
vious success of the acting chancellor, Dr. Mac-
Cracken made him no longer necessary to the
institution's success. It was with profound con-
viction that such an institution of learning was
needed, even while recognizing the wide scope
of Columbia University, that the work was done.
He was firmly persuaded that under existing
conditions no one place of learning would repre-
sent all the aspirations for higher education found
in New York. He considered it wholesome for
both institutions that they should prosper along

234 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

their own lines. In iiis judgment there was not
only room and place for both, but a very real
need for both. How, he used to ask, would any
Board of Trustees succeed in representing all the
conflicting interests and various educational ideals
found in our heterogeneous population ? The
wisdom of his action has been abundantly justi-
fied by the success of the institution.

As the education struggle in Ireland fitted him
in some degree for facing the educational prob-
lems of America, so also the experience in the
missions of Connaught made him ever a warm
supporter of home missions in his adopted
country. After the reconstruction of the Church's
work in connection with the reunion he became
connected officially with the Home Board, and
served its interests faithfully until his illness in
1898 when he desired to lay down his office of
President of the Board. To Assembly after
Assembly he addressed stirring appeals for the
cause he had ever on his heart. He enlisted a
wide public sympathy on behalf of the West, and
his personal knowledge of the country gave his"
appeals great force. In his choice of colaborers
his fault was an unbounded but, alas, not always
well-founded faith that all men had his enthu-
siasm and his capacity r,nd willingness to work.

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 235

It was at times quite pathetic to see how wounded
and hurt he was by the carelessness, blunders
and incompetency of those whom he had trusted
as good men with sincere professions.

It was in good faith that he assumed the presi-
dency of the Board of Home Missions of the re-
united church. He felt himself to be a repre-
sentative of both wings, and he always tried to
insist on fairness and justice in the theological
disputes some tried to introduce into its work-
ings, indignantly he repelled the suggestion of
making the Home Board representative of one
shade of thought in the church. Many who
heard his speech, made by courtesy at the As-
sembly, of which he was not a member, in de-
fense of the policy he stood for in Pittsburg in
1895, bitterly resented it, but he carried the As-
sembly with him, and saved the good faith and
the credit of the Board of Home Missions. At
that Assembly it had been proposed to practically
make the Home Board the organ of a particular
shade of theological opinion. The results of any
such action would have been disastrous, yet un-
doubtedly the proposal would have been carried,
had not my father as the president of the Board,
obtained the floor and in a brief speech of great
power completely turned the tide.

236 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

Only now and then were the really remarkable
powers of persuasion and of debate, possessed
by my father, seen to their best advantage. He
both distrusted Mr. Henry Ward Beecher's the-
ology and disliked, what he considered, Beecher's
superficial treatment of the older thought. He
had occasion, however, in his earlier life in New
York to indirectly have a good deal of intercourse
with Mr. Beecher, through Mr. Robert Bonner,
who was a warm friend of Mr. Beecher's, and
continued so, until he thought Mr. Beecher mis-
used his confidence when a certain coldness came
between the two men. Mr. Beecher often ex-
pressed a good deal of admiration for the "young
Irishman with the golden mouth," as he once called
him, and got several articles for his paper from his
pen. They also met occasionally on the platform,
and at one such meeting Mr. Beecher took occasion
to speak slightingly of Calvin. This gave an oc-
casion for my father to defend in courteous, but
vigorous language what he considered Mr.
Beecher had too lightly defamed. My father was
at that time relatively unknown, but many who
were present, have since told the writer that they
never heard a more able and impressive answer,
and never saw a great audience, at the beginning
hostile, so completely carried off by enthusiasm

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 237

for that at which a few minutes before they
were laughing and jesting under the influence of
Mr. Beecher's wonderful powers of banter and
attack.

Another line of work strongly attracted my
father. He felt the need of maintaining and
strengthening the institutional church life of
Protestantism in the city. Both in the work of
church extension and in city missions was he en-
gaged faithfully and actively for many years.
He was, perhaps, inclined to underestimate the
necessity of a variety in the church work among
the more floating populations, and to consider
extravagant what other men's experience taught
them to consider necessary expense. Yet he
never for one moment doubted that as the city
was so would the country be soon. Like Paul
he felt that the city must be captured and held if
the cause of Christ and righteousness were to
triumph. This faith in institutional life showed
itself in his eagerness to advance church erection
over the land. When the General Assembly
passed the very wise rule that a minister should
have a place on only one board, against his judg-
ment, and at the request of the Board of Church
Erection my father was made a special exception,
and he remained on both boards as long as he

238 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

thought he could be useful. His special eager-
ness being to provide parsonages as far as pos-
sible in connection with the weaker churches.
His arguments were that such a "manse" was
generally a good investment; gave the minister
an official residence that was there beyond criti-
cism as "too shabby or too luxurious"; was a
certain part of the salary that could not "get
behindhand"; and was to the community a
certain guarantee of permanence in the church
life.

The literary ambitions of my father were
limited to immediate influence upon his own
generation. From his earliest public life in Con-
naught he had made use of the public press.
Early he valued highly the weekly press, and re-
joiced in every opportunity of addressing those
who might in no other way come under his in-
fluence. The enormous amount of literary work
he accomplished in the midst of his other labors
seems well-nigh incredible. From 1869 to about
1887, he must have averaged weekly an amount of
writing equal to at least three columns of the ordi-
nary daily paper. For the New York Ledger he
wrote regularly and successfully, and in large de-
gree considered it a part of his best work. His
articles had always a moral and religious aim,

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 239

and yet they were read by thousands whose lives
he could in no other way touch. Dr. Theodore
D. Cuyler has often emphasized the "pen and
the weekly press," and along the same lines my
father steadily worked. With the exception of
a little volume of " Papers for Home Reading "
published by Dodd and Mead he refused to even
attempt to give a permanent form to these wri-
tings. He said of them as of sermons that the
thought of writing for posterity would detract
from their power for the present. All his liter-
ary work sprang thus from his sense of immedi-
ate need. Early he published a volume of
" Family Prayers " because he found many com-
ing over to evangelical Protestantism who knew
not how to pray, save as they had some printed
guidance. He followed Mr. Henry Ward
Beecher in the Yale Lecture Course on Preaching,
with a series of simple, but direct lectures on
"God's Word through Preaching" (Dodd, Mead
and Co., New York). For the American Sunday-
school Union he once wrote a volume on " The
Christian Home" 1883, and one of the tasks in
which he took great delight towards the close of
his life was a volume of daily texts with com-
ments called "Light Upon My Path" published
by Brentano. He had no ambition to shine either

240 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

as a profound thinker, or as a literary genius.
Yet all that he wrote is marked by the utmost
refinement of feeling for style and balance of
sentence. And all his writings breathe the clear,
simple manly common sense, that made him the
ready helper of so many thousands.

He never overestimated his own powers, in-
deed he rather underestimated them, and what-
ever he did he did with a certain force and direct-
ness peculiarly his own. 'He actually objected
to publishing or printing his sermons and ad-
dresses, and in the few cases in which this was
done he generally appended an apology. Yet
naturally many such sermons and addresses
found their way into print. Some he revised
himself, but generally all he attempted was to
correct with his own pen any slips and obscur-
ities.

In all his literary work, as in his preaching
what he regarded as the " Gospel" shines out.
He had a definite system of theology; and he at-
tached importance to it. Most clearly was he in
the habit of stating such positions in the lecture-
room on Wednesday evening, or to his Ladies'
Bible class on a week-day afternoon. Yet even
then it was not a theology he taught so much as
a message he delivered. His theological system

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 241

was the eclectic evangelical Calvinism prev-
alent in evangelical circles in the United King-
dom, after the great religious movements of the
Eighteenth Century. It lacked the sharp defi-
nite structure of the theologies of the Seventeenth
Century, but more than made up for that by the
gentleness of tone, and the emphasis upon God
as the believer's Father. It is a dangerous thing
to attempt to formulate any one else's faith in a
few words, and yet so simple and so clear were
the outlines of the system that underlay all my
father's preaching and teaching that justice can at
least be partly done to it.

He accepted simply the doctrine of the Trinity
as a mystery, but a mystery in the sense that it was
declared, and in its declaration was an aid to faith
and devotion. At one time he was attracted to
the " Kenosis " or " emptying " theory to explain
the twofold nature of Jesus Christ, but soon
turned definitely away from it and all explana-
tions, preaching simply the perfect manhood,
and absolute divinity of Jesus Christ. Here
again he accepted the modifications in Christol-
ogy brought about by the evangelical revival,
and Jesus as the man suffering with us had con-
stant place in his proclamation. Once in the
early days of his ministry in New York he was

242 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

asked to preach at Harvard, and knowing some-
thing, by report, of the atmosphere there he de-
termined to preach Jesus as attractively but as
strongly as he courteously could. He had met
Dr. Peabody on his trip to America, in 1867, but
in some way did not recognize him on the plat-
form. Dr. Peabody walked home with him and
spoke so warmly of the sermon that my father
assumed that his companion was in full sym-
pathy with the trinitarian position, and said
something about his object in thus speaking;
then Dr. Peabody made himself known and re-
marked that if Jesus Christ had been so presented
in the days of the Unitarian struggle, many
would have kept their places in evangelical
circles. He held firmly to the theory of the
atonement as a sacrifice to satisfy an abstract out-
raged Justice; but held that God's love vindi-
cated itself in providing the ransom and in ac-
cepting the substitution; thus as he saw it, main-
taining the moral order of the universe and
revealing the Father's love. At the same time he
definitely proclaimed this theory only as the one
that satisfied his judgment best, while having
patience with other theories so long as the sacrificial
nature of the atonement was involved.
His theory of inspiration remained an unshaken

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 243

faith that whatever errors transcription might
have introduced into the pages as we have them,
that inerrancy in a very strict sense was to be at-
tributed to the inspired word. In early hfe he
had attacked with a good deal of severity the
premilleniarian views so frequently found in
evangelical circles. Though he never adopted
them he became markedly more patient with
them in later life, and clung to the faith that the
Jews as a nation were yet to be converted, and
that then the "fullness of the Gentiles" would
come in. Rather remarkable, indeed, is the his-
tory of this hope. He had it from his mother,
who in turn had it from her cousin the Rev.
Wm. Magowan who was minister in Mount
Norris, where stood the parish church, and who
baptized my father. Mr. Magowan gave a great
deal of time and strength to work for converting
the Jews, and when the mother was compelled
to say good-bye to her eldest son going as a
minister to New York, she left on record the fact
that in her sorrow her one comfort was that her
"boy would be preaching to many nations, and
might evangelize many of God's Israel."

In the refinements of theological speculation
he had little interest. For him the theology that
resolved the doubts of the ordinary theologically

244 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING

untrained hearer was sufficient. He knew noth-
ing of German speculative theology, and was in-
clined to regard it as useless if not dangerous, at
the same time felt that a trained minister who
had the opportunity should master it if he could.
Very early in the theological training of the pres-
ent writer he advised acquiring a knowledge of
French and German, and more than once he him-
self undertook the study of French. Yet he did
not feel the necessity for his own thought of
work along the directions of modern speculation,
and scientific enquiry. He was apt to distrust
new phraseology, and felt even some measure of
impatience with those whom the older phrases
no longer satisfied, and who were compelled to
recast the forms in which faith was expressed.
In a life of such ceaseless activity, in a theology
in which a deep and constant Christian experi-
ence was the real basis, the intellectual elements
although not wanting did not play the principal
part. There was firm faith that the system of
evangelical teachings, that even the round of
evangelical formulae which seemed most conso-
nant with Scripture, would stand the most
searching tests, but the application of those tests
my father was content to leave to others. And
for the most part he confined himself to the facts

AND ENLARGING INFLUENCE 245

of Christian experience, and had therefore among
those whom he deeply influenced many whose
intellectual life and whose intellectual convictions
differed greatly from his own.

X. HOME LIFE AND SUMMER TRAVELS

SOLILOQUY AMONG THE HILLS'

DR. JOHN HALL

From joys like those, that cannot be defined,

Part of the hills and earth, and part of God.

From nearness and the sense of it, tlie step

To silence absolute, is too abrupt. One must

Send up into the hills a " Benedicite."

Would it could be forever audible !

Yet why ? It will, one knows, forever fall

Where I would have it, audibly or not.

No answering voice is hoped, or needed here :

It is enough to know of kindly thoughts

That lift up and transfigure, judging one

By what he should be, not by what he is.

And murmured blessings, sympathies, and prayers ;

And that perchance the sense of human love.

For love's sake living in another's breast.

May — as the hills though lower touch the heaven.

Suggest the Love Divine, and all that it has given.

* Probably written in Wales about 1873.

248

X

HOME LIFE AND SUMMER TRAVELS

HUMOR. FREEDOM IN EDUCATION. AMUSEMENTS. THE
VACATION. SAN FRANCISCO. ILLNESS. MOTHER'S DEATH.
NEPHEWS DEATH. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. ON BOARD
SHIP. GERMANY. ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION. THE
PRESS. ABSURD REPOR TS.

INTIMATELY bound up with his work as
preacher and teacher was the home hfe of the
father and friend. To many the extreme earnest-
ness of the pulpit ministrations seemed to exclude
any humorous side, as my father never raised a
laugh or even often caused a smile while preach-
ing. At the same time he was gifted with a
keen sense of humor, had many a good story,
and in public address had a most happy way of
putting the audience in touch with him by some
whimsical remark. Yet even here the smile was
merely a means to an end, and the end was sel-
dom merely amusement.

The present writer does not know whether
any special pedagogic theories ever occupied the
father's attention, but the circumstances of a
changing field of work did somewhat disturb

the educational plans for the family. In the
249

250 HOME LIFE

home books were on hand on all sorts of subjects,
and interest in a great variety of topics was cul-
tivated. The home life included great freedom
of both thought and action. A note in a stray
engagement book marks the fact " to-day secured
for Dick, Darwin's ' Descent of Man.' " As the
boy was only then fifteen and Darwin in 1874
was being denounced from nearly every pulpit,
and in the columns of the weekly religious press
as the arch-destroyer of the faith, and as my
father himself, so far as the present writer's
knowledge goes, never accepted Darwin's views,
such an entry marks the spirit of freedom in which
the family grew up. To some degree the very
catholicity of the man sprang from the sure faith
in him that he had common sense and truth on
his side so evidently and so strongly that it only
needed statement to convince any right under-
standing. He felt that things must be argued
out, and had little fear as to the ultimate result of
the argument. Moreover his dealings with Roman
Catholic methods, and his strong Protestantism
made him, as it made Dr. Henry Cooke his
teacher, afraid of suppressive measures. Free-
dom of teaching was such a dire necessity in Ire-
land that anything that seemed to threaten it he
saw to be a calamity. Given a fair field and he

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 251

felt fully persuaded that the system of evangel-
ical theology must in the end win the day.

The great big preacher, who so often towered
on the platform above all the rest, was exceed-
ingly gentle. He could be pained and vexed,
but probably no one ever saw him angry. Chil-
dren took naturally to him, and climbed up with-
out fear on his knee to hear a repeating watch,
kept largely for their amusement, strike the hours
and minutes. And hence he could talk and write
to children. Although his preaching was often
on a devotional and spiritual level far above a
child's comprehension, yet his language seldom
was so, and as children we and our childish com-
panions dreaded any other preacher taking his
place in the pulpit. The most distinct childish
impressions are of a very busy man, always hav-
ing something that had to be done at a special
time, and of one who now and then greatly re-
joiced all the children's hearts by taking "a long
walk" with them. Into the study the children
were always free to go, to get a piece of paper, a
bit of string or a word of help, and the usual
greeting was "Well, dear, what can I do for
you?" The study was the scene of the wildest
disorder. Letters, clippings, magazines with the
leaves turned down, filled every nook and corner.

252 HOME LIFE

The bookcases and the very walls were decorated
with half-sheets of paper containing engagements,
notices, addresses, memoranda of all kinds, in
the earlier life such was the power of memory
possessed that each piece of paper could be turned
to, and each letter was at hand. In later years a
search had occasionally to be entered upon, and
the reforming spirit once or twice took hold of
the chaos, and order reigned — for a little while.
"It is," he said occasionally, "my litter-ary
workshop," and the litter none dare ruthlessly
touch lest some important letter on the top might
hide itself at the bottom. He read rapidly and
miscellaneously and more than once remarked
that "it had to be a very bad book from which
one could not get something." The writings of
Whately influenced him deeply, and books of
pure theology did not attract him. Refined spec-
ulation, or abstract critical processes were not
congenial ground. His amusements were of the
simplest character. He played now and then a
game of "draughts" or "checkers," and played
a very good game. Now and then, though
very, very rarely, he went to a concert, and
nothing pleased him so much as a little music
in the home. He had no systematic knowledge
of music, yet picked out what pleased him, and

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 253

the opening movement of the "moonlight"
sonata by Beethoven was what he most admired,
although he did not realize at all the historic po-
sition of Beethoven as a composer, and knew it as
"the piece that Jenny plays." On the continent
he was fond of spending an evening at a music-
garden, and watched the program with some
amusement over the unfamiliar names. What
pleased him best in these performances were the
marches from the works of Wagner, and the
somewhat wild Hungarian music made popular
by Brahms.

He seldom had time for even "a walk," merely
as a walk, but often he found a few visits had to
be made out of the regular round, and then it
was a pleasure to him to summon one of us to
enjoy with him a stroll on the way. Wild
scenery attracted him most strongly, and the
lonely desolation of Colorado made a deep im-
pression on him, but for pictorial art he had but
little feeling.

Sometimes those near him thought he sacrificed
too much of his time and strength and self for the
sake of heeding all sorts of outside claims upon
him. He ministered to all who came. The
house had almost no protection for him, from
morning to evening a stream of callers, generally

254 HOME LIFE

on their own errands, stormed the door, and when
at home he saw them all. Scarcely an uninter-
rupted meal was ever his portion, and only in
the late hours of the night could he be sure of
any seclusion.

Of social life in the strict sense he knew almost
nothing. A rare dinner-party, once or .twice a
speech at a public banquet, now and then a few
friends to " tea " was all the formal social life he
ever had. He avoided purely social functions,
and had no time for formal entertainment. On
Sunday evenings the tea-table welcomed a num-
ber of young men, some the friends of his sons,
some "strangers," some the sons of old Irish
friends, who had their homes in America. Yet
he rarely was able to sit through that meal, for an
engagement to preach somewhere would compel
him to excuse himself and hurry away leaving
some course untouched. As he walked the
streets he thought out his sermons and articles,
often making a note or two on an envelope while
waiting for the family called upon to appear.

He was always gentle and considerate, with a
native grace that art could add little to, and there
was absolutely no difference in the way he spoke
to or treated the most exalted rank or the most
ignorant servant girl. To all he was the same

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 255

kindly, fatherly gentleman. He attached im-
portance to good manners, and lamented some-
times the "boorishness" of other wise useful
ministers. To an Irish theological student he
wrote urging him to make the most of some
home life in Belfast as "an opportunity of culti-
vating the Christian refinement a minister so
much needs."

He was himself also extremely active for so
large a man, and many will ever remember a
certain grace and dignity with which he mounted
the pulpit. He had a love for order and rever-
ence in church services, though disliking all elab-
orate ritual. His taste in these matters was
refined and simple, and nothing annoyed him so
much in the pulpit, or on the platform as to have
a fussy man whispering arrangements, choosing
hymns, arranging the parts of the service. He
felt that all such things could and should be ar-
ranged beforehand, noted on paper, and then
carried out without distraction and fuss.

So busy a life needed year by year change and
rest. Hence each summer was given over to
"vacations." In point of fact more work was
often accomplished in such a " vacation " than the
average man gets done in his busy season. Ex-
cept for a few weeks on the continent my father

256 HOME LIFE

generally preached every Sunday the year round,
and often once or twice in the week. In Ireland
or England he was in constant demand, and
raised debts, laid corner-stones, and preached
special sermons by way of recreation. Yet the
vacation was both rest and change for him. The
burden of his pastoral visitation was laid down.
He also gained from his travels new inspirations
and materials for his ceaseless production of ser-
mons and articles. All through the vacations his
literary work went on. He would pause a day
on his journey to complete a Sunday-school
lesson or finish a contribution promised to some
review or newspaper.

The first trips to the continent as already men-
tioned were made from Dublin, when Paris, Rome,
Switzerland, the Rhine and the principal places
of interest along the tourists' highroad were
visited. Again in 1869 he visited the continent
and kept a careful diary of the journey. At Bern
he records the fact that he "saw the Federal
Parliament in session. It resembles in arrange-
ments the Senate of the United States and is
orderly and impressive," and he was impressed
again and again by the "views from the passes
of rugged, bare, bold, precipitous rocks, of cliffs
overhanging mighty depths, of the angry rivers

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 257

chafing along through hindering rocks as they
dashed in mad leaps down the mountainsides, and
then of bits of utter and dreary desolation, where
rugged nature wars with man as an intruder
upon her solitude; and of quiet strength and
confidence as snow-capped peaks lift themselves
up into the blue of heaven, far-reaching even
over cloud and storm."

That same year he made a little trip alone to
Oxford and Cambridge, but felt a little lonely, in
fact so much so "as almost to destroy at times
the pleasure of seeing places which 1 have wanted
to see for twenty years, but for which I had
neither time nor money until now." The first
sermon he heard in London was by Spurgeon,
"a magnificent and yet simple sermon." The
continental services were less pleasing, although
he attended them regularly. At one place the
journal remarks with some force " thence to the
Rue (Paris) where we saw and heard a ser-
mon! From the intolerable affectation of the
preacher, it was fitted to do only evil to most
people. The honest and painful truth is that
since we set out we did not hear one thoroughly
good sermon or enjoy a genuine service any-
where!" In 1872 a visit was made by the whole
family to California. This really tremendous un-

258 HOME LIFE

dertaking turned out very well, and everywhere
meetings and preaching made his voice known
on the western coast. In an article for the New
York Ledger he marked some of his impres-
sions of Yosemite valley.

"It is after midday, and a cool wind is sing-
ing through the pines, the sound of which it is
impossible to distinguish from that of the falls
in front of this hotel.

"The valley runs about east and west, and the
east end is called the head. It is any length you
please under ten miles, according as you fix its
ending or its beginning. It is about a mile
broad in the level portion, and if one includes
the gradual rise to the precipices formed by
fallen debris, it is rather more from rock to rock.
The points about it are not the great height of
the surrounding mountains, but their nearness,
which implies their steepness, and the impress-
ive forms they assume.

"Once in the valley, the sights are the follow-
ing: Bridal Veil Fall goes with Inspiration Point;
Vernal and Nevada Falls, at the head or east end
of the valley, occupy a day profitably, and if you
have come in by Inspiration Point, another day
is due to Glacier Point. Having reached this
elevation, let no tourist return without riding to

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 259

the top of Sentinel Dome — the only dome he is
likely to climb, and from which he can look all
around without obstruction. Unicorn Mount,
the Cloud's Rest, Mount Hoffman, Mount Clark,
Starr King, and the Red Mountains, are before
him on the north and east, while westward he
looks down the valley, and sees how it merges
in the general sea of great rolling granite billows.
From this point also he can cultivate the ac-
quaintance of the solemn friends to whose white
heads he looked up from the valley. There is
North Dome, now seen to be rounded only on
three sides, on the fourth ending a long moun-
tain ridge. There is Washington Column, which
looks as if set up to secure the dome against any
risk of toppling over into the river below. To
the right of it is South Dome, the western half of
it fallen out apparently, itself hard, bare and in-
accessible. Watkins Mount, Mount Broderick,
and other elevations, are under his eye. So is
the entrance to the little Yosemite; so are the
Nevada and Vernal Falls; while turning towards
the west. Sentinel Rock and El Capitan, both
precipitous, keep watch from opposite sides over
the valley; and far away, till the eye fails even
in this clear atmosphere, there lie the great waves
of granite, with all the intervals between them

26o HOME LIFE

well covered with firs and pines, which thrive in
the soil and disintegrated granite the great ice-
ploughs raised and left for them, when the
glaciers covered all the slopes of the Pacific.

" One of the prettiest sights in the valley is at
early morning and in the evening, when light is
clear and bright on the domes and peaks, and
the shadows still linger below. No high degree
of imagination or of devoutness is needed to
suggest the 'light sown for the righteous,' when
they live an elevated and pure life, and so enjoy
more than common men of the ' beauty of the
Lord.'"

In a letter of that year from San Francisco to
his mother he writes, "We set out to-morrow
morning for a six days' railway journey across
the continent, after a most pleasant month in this
city and state. I have preached ten times these
ten days. We shall be in New York again about
the I2th of September, the three boys going to
college the 13th. Our hope is, that God willing,
our next long journey will be to you, in the
summer of 1875."

In the summer of 1870 a very severe attack of
malarial fever or mild attack of typhoid nearly
cost my father his life, and although he spent a
good many summers in America after that it was

DK. JOHN HALL'S MOTHER

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 261

always with some misgivings on the part of his
medical advisers, and later on he went almost
regularly over the ocean for change and rest.
One summer however he spent, as has been
mentioned, touring the west in the interests of
the Sunday-school Union, and informing himself
quietly about home mission matters. That was
in 1874, and in 1876 he crossed on the sad oc-
casion of losing his aged and tenderly loved
mother, who passed away at an advanced age.
To that mother the son had been nothing but
comfort, and she slept in peace in the arms of
Him whom she taught her son to love, reverence
and proclaim.

It was always a great source of pleasure for
my father to stop a little in London, to walk its
crowded streets, to climb up on the top of a
"bus" and discourse with 'Arry who answered
him in his best cockney, with a short pipe be-
tween his teeth. Not even advancing years pre-
vented the indulgence in this diversion, even
when the climb up to the top of a swaying Lon-
don bus seemed to include for him a measure of
danger.

The House of Commons was always one of
his pleasures, and there we heard together the
debate on Irish Home Rule question when Par-

262 HOME LIFE

nell kept the House together all night. The im-
pressions of that debate are recorded in a letter
printed in a weekly paper.

"The night which the present writer gave to
the House was occupied by a debate on Irish
Home Rule, and gave a good opportunity to note
the characteristics of the House as developed in
recent years. To state these as they appeared, is
the purpose of this column.

"When 1 first made the acquaintance of the
House, a certain freedom and ease of speech, of
which Lord Palmerston was the type, had begun
to displace the formal, stately, and Johnsonian
style which Disraeli at first affected. Mr. Bright
appeared to me to have the happy medium as
between the two. He spoke plain English,
largely Saxon, and with an ease that did not sac-
rifice dignity. In those days the speaker was
addressed throughout, and personalities were
rare. The change in this respect is amazing.
Take an instance. An opposition leader, leaning
both arms on the table, and looking over it into
the faces of 'the government,' says — 'The
course you are now taking is a sham.' ' No, no,'
cry members on the government side. 'The
course you are taking is a sham,' repeats the hon-
orable member, and the 'No, no,' comes again.

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 263

' If honorable members will persist in their "No,
no," they will oblige me to repeat my assertion:
The course you are taking is a sham,' — and, true
to his threat, he repeated it till the 'No, no,' was
given up in despair. This incident is a specimen
of a new style introduced into the debates, which
— with charges of inconsistency, double-minded-
ness, insincerity and the like — does not indicate
advance in the direction of dignity.

" It is known to most of our readers that mem-
bers wear their hats, unless when speaking or
going in or out of the house. As the morning
came in— the writer remained till after two
o'clock — many were asleep and their easy atti-
tudes corresponded. Indeed, on the side galleries
a couple of gentlemen stretched themselves, and
— one wishes to be parliamentary — slept so au-
dibly that had they been on the floor the speaker
might have been expected to call out ' order.' It
is easy to see how in such conditions the tone of
a meeting goes down, and men readily glide into
what would hardly seem gentlemanly. A mem-
ber, for example, makes his speech, and the next
speaker says on rising: 'The honorable member
who has just sat down, entered the House eight-
een months ago, and made the speech to which
we have listened to-night, and many times be-

264 HOME LIFE

fore. If the honorable gentleman has nothing
else to say he should save the time of the House.'
It is common to credit Americans with very free
speech, but after twenty years' familiarity with
American public meetings, the writer remembers
nothing more free — in the sense of defective dig-
nity — than portions of this debate."

Often as he crossed the sea yet the voyage al-
ways interested my father. In one place he gives
an amusing description of the more unpleasant
side of the trip. He at first having suffered as
others do.

" But, on the first day, if the weather be pro-
pitious, the deck is well covered with people in
their land costume. Introductions are being en-
joyed; reminiscences are being exchanged. 'We
crossed together on the Germania, or the Servia,
was it?' The sea is smooth, the sky is bright.
'What an auspicious start we are having,' say
the passengers to one another. Pleasant groups
are gathered together, and the ' pleasures of
hope' are enjoyed in common. Old sea-goers
are selecting the places for their chairs, and ma-
king little arrangements, and when the first meal
is served the tables are crowded. The afternoon
changes matters a little. ' The sea is treacherous,
you know.' Some were very busy before start-

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 265

ing, and need a little rest. Some are very — well,
there is no use in hiding it — uncomfortable — in
fact, seasick.

"There are two experiences on board which
notably interfere with comfort. The one is fog.
The Atlantic is an admirable ocean, particularly
our side of it, where it touches Coney Island,
Long Branch, Newport and Narragansett; but it
is subject to fogs, especially as one approaches
the slice of it that British America claims. No
doubt if the Atlantic were put on its defense it
could defend itself. ' If cold waves and currents
come down from the north and mingle with my
genial waters how can I help it ? ' But whatever
the defense, the fact as seen by the eye, felt all
over the body and damp clothes, and forced into
the ears by the foghorn is real and depressing.
And when your cautious captain, mindful of the
collision in which the Celtic and Britannic hurt
one another, (how long Celts and Britons have
been in collision and with what painful conse-
quences!) — when the captain slows down and
even stops the ship, what gloom and suspense
fill the thick, dull atmosphere!

"It is a comfort that fog and storm do not
come together. The latter is the second dis-
turber of the peace. ' Isn't there a little more

266 HOME LIFE

motion in the ship?' 'The wind, I think, is ri-
sing a little.' ' Has it been blowing here ? There
does not seem wind enough to make these
waves.' 'I think I'll go below;' and he or she
goes, rather nervously and unceremoniously —
these, with the closing of the port-holes, and the
placing of ' guards ' on the tables, and the very
marked decrease of occupants of them, are
among the symptoms of 'a little rough weather.'
You go on deck for the fresh air, but it is cold
and damp. You have to lean right or left as you
walk, to watch against a salt shower-bath, to
keep out of the way of sailors settling ropes, to
watch your feet. You decide to 'go down.' It
is a little difficult to manage things below. That
sea-trunk of yours has grown restless. Combs
and brushes catch the spirit of the occasion. At
length you 'get lying down.' But you ' feel the
motion,' and when you try to forget it those
coats and garments which you adjusted so nicely
on the sides of your room, as they obey the law
of gravitation and swing to and fro, remind you
of it, until you wish they were in the trunk, and
the trunk safely anchored somewhere. Yes,
there are little inconveniences to the average pas-
senger."

Many and many a person has said to the pres-

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 267

ent writer, "We heard your father preach on
board the steamship so and so." Among the
steerage passengers he, also, usually held a serv-
ice, and generally discovered before the voyage
was over just how many north of Ireland Protes-
tants were on the ship's list. He once spent al-
most the entire summer in Germany, and al-
though he did not speak the language he picked
up many vivid impressions. Some he recorded
as follows:

"The solidity of everything of German con-
struction is an obvious characteristic. Things are
made to stand. There are no ' shanties.' The
window frames and doors are meant for genera-
tions. The keys of houses and rooms are made
without regard to the cost of the metal. The
streets are paved with enormous stones, and ap-
pear to last. So it is with the common highways
in many places. They recall the old Roman
roads. The wagons are enormously heavy, and
only matched by the weight of the harness on
the horses. One sees collars on brewers' dray-
horses which seem a load in themselves, and on
which are piled heavy brass decorations that re-
call the armor of the middle ages. No wonder
that they move with a slow gravity, as if con-
scious of the greatness of the interests they rep-

268 HOME LIFE

resent, and there is a corresponding feature in the
minor arrangements of life.

"Now a good deal of this is unnecessary and
some of it provokes a smile. But the question is
— are we not in danger of erring on the other
side ? We are rapid, inventive, familiar with
change, content to secure the present, willing to
have the future take care of Itself. We aim at
being ' smart ' rather than solid. Our German
fellow-citizens may help us to the happy medium. "

In 1883 a sad shadow came over my father's
life. He greatly rejoiced in the success and
promise of my cousin John Magowan, who had
taken his last year at Union Theological Seminary,
and who had most successfully begun his work
at the Canal Street Presbyterian Church. In a
great many ways the presence of his nephew in
the city and in the presbytery had been a great
source of gratification to him. Then the splendid
promise of wide influence for good was cut short
by sudden illness; and a life that had been filled
with sweetness and hope ended on November
26th, in the early dawn of the Monday morning.
It was under the family roof that the illness had
its fatal termination, and the dear remains rest in
Woodlawn, and the spirit is with God who
gave it.

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 269

The shock to my father was very great, and he
never trusted himself to speak much about one
to whom he was deeply attached, and from
whom he with good reason expected great
things. Side by side they now await the resur-
rection!

On November the 29th of 1891, the community
was startled by the report of the attempted assas-
sination of my father. He came walking rapidly
from the church and alone up to the steps of the
house, when an insane man, John G. Roth, to
whom he had given some trifling help, at-
tempted his life with a revolver. Three shots
were fired, but although fired at a distance of
scarcely ten feet, none took effect. The arrest
of the man followed, and it was found that he
was an unfortunate but dangerous lunatic. After
going to the police court to identify his assailant
he went into his pulpit to preach the sermon he
had prepared, and in the evening preached in
Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn.
On him the incident seemed to have left little im-
pression, except of thankfulness to God for his
escape, and certainly his wonderful coolness in
quietly opening the door while the man was
firing at him was noteworthy and perhaps saved
his life. Hundreds of letters and telegrams from

270 HOME LIFE

all over the country and from Europe brought him
congratulations upon his wonderful escape. The
unfortunate man was at once placed under care,
his condition being that of dangerous insanity.

The public man in America has a constant
problem to solve in his relations to the daily
press. On the one hand no sensible man fails to
see the great influence for good and evil yielded
by these daily publications; yet on the other hand
the irresponsible character and the untrustworth-
iness in general and in detail breeds a great dis-
trust of that influence. This distrust was deeply
rooted in my father. On the whole he was
always well treated by the papers, in general the
daily press sought to say pleasant things about
him and his work. Yet the emphasis placed
upon just those features of his work which gave
him the least satisfaction always greatly annoyed
him. Very soon after beginning work in New
York some correspondent described him as out
on Harlem Lane — at that time the meeting-place
for fast trotters — behind a pair of fast horses.
Probably the correspondent meant no harm, or
mistook for him a distant relative of my father's
bearing the same name, and being a medical doc-
tor bearing also the same title. At the same time
the report was promptly " paragraphed " all over

AND SUMMER TRAVELS 271

the country, and even now might at any time
turn up in the " plates " of some country paper.
No denials, although promptly made, and no cor-
rections in the columns of the Boston paper, al-
though they too were at once forthcoming, made
any difference; year after year the paragraph,
" Dr. Hall on Harlem Lane" made its appearance
as regularly as the roses came in spring or the
joke about the plumber adorns the winter col-
umns of the funny paper.

Another report, as absurd, about the enormous
fortune my father was supposed to possess still
lives, and circulates even now with stately
gravity in the columns of papers in far Russia as
well as in Germany and France. His corre-
spondence brought him begging letters from
Egypt, Japan, China, India, Sweden, Germany,
Russia, Spain, and indeed all European lands.
Generally the begging letters enclosed a clipping
from the paper of the country giving the fig-
ures on which the correspondents based their
hopes. No contradictions availed at all. Con-
tradictions and corrections are not " para-
graphed." As a matter of fact such were the
demands upon the city pastor with a large family
and of necessity living in a certain style, that al-
though the salary was large and the house free,

272 HOME LIFE

and the living very simple — no carriage or horses
ever being maintained — no money was ever saved
from the yearly salary. All the small fortune
that was left the widow was earned with the
pen or was the result of a kindly legacy left by
a dear and devoted friend. The home life was
simple. Of formal entertainment, as has been
said, there was none. At lunch and dinner there
was always room for any one whom my father
or one of the children would ask to stay and par-
take of the meal with the family. And of such
hospitality there was abundance, but formal en-
tertainment was made simply impossible by the
busy and constantly interrupted life into which
year by year my father drifted. Such was the
home life. In many ways it was too public, too
incessantly interrupted, too restlessly engaged,
to be an ideal home life. Yet circumstances
made it such, and that was one of the many
sacrifices demanded by a public life upon which
every one deemed himself as having a claim.

XI. CONTROVERSY AND ATTEMPTED
PEACEMAKING

WRITING ON THE SAND.

Alone I walk'd the ocean strand —
A pearly shell was in my hand ;
I stoop'd, and wrote upon the sand

My name — the year — the day.
As onward from the spot I pass'd
One lingering look behind I cast.
A wave came rolling high and fast,

And wash'd my lines away.

And so, methought, 'twill shortly be
With every mark on earth from me ;
A wave of dark oblivion's sea

Will sweep across the place.
Where I have trod the sandy shore
Of time, there will remain more,
Of me — my name — the name I bore,

'Twill leave no track^no trace.

And yet, with Him who counts the sands.
And holds the water in His hands,
I know the lasting record stands.

Inscribed against my name ;
Of all this mortal part has wrought,
Of all this thinking soul has thought,
And from these fleeting moments caught,

For glory or for shame.

— The Missionary Herald, iSjS.

274

XI

CONTROVERSY AND ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING

POWERS OF CONTROVERSY. I^EVISION. MISUNDERSTAND-
INGS. COUNSELS llEJECTED. THE CASE OF DR. BRIGGS.
UNION SEMINARY. ^ATTITUDE TOWARDS EXTREMISTS.
CONCEPTION OF FUNDAMENTALS.

MANY who knew my father well have ad-
mired his powers of debate and his clear-
ness in statement in controversy. He did not,
however, either welcome argument or like de-
bate. He could handle a sharp sword when it
was necessary, but he loved peace, and generally
avoided a struggle if he could do so. At the
same time he now and then was pricked into
sharp rejoinder and most decided action. From
Professor Tyndal he exacted at one time an
apology, by exposing inaccuracies in public state-
ment in a sharp and almost scathing manner. In
his Dublin controversy he most firmly maintained
his ground against some of the ablest debaters of
their generation. When in 1889 the question
came up before the New York Presbytery on the
initiative of the General Assembly as to the ad-
visability of a revision of the Confession of Faith,
275

276 CONTROVERSY AND

all the instincts of a lifetime of service based
upon the platform of evangelical Calvinism
prompted to immediate defense of that which
was assailed. He dreaded, in common with
many other conservative friends, the revision ex-
tending to things he considered really valuable.
For him God's grace was bound up with the
doctrine of man's utter helplessness. He had no
intellectual difficulty himself with the doctrines
of the Confession of Faith, and a most sincere
admiration for the Shorter Catechism: he, more-
over, deeply and heartily distrusted what Mr.
Spurgeon called the " down-grade theology."
In the whole revision movement he rightly saw
the intellectual unrest, which he regarded as
dangerous. He had been taught to regard the
evangelical awakening in Ireland as a result of
the reassertion of the Calvinistic system of the
Confession of Faith, and to attach exceedingly
great importance to the subscription which had
been enforced in Ireland in 1840. There may be
other opinions on such questions, but the fact
here to be emphasized is that the course of con-
duct pursued in the debate was throughout con-
sistent with these positions. He was not present
when revision was overwhelmingly decided
upon in the meeting of November, 1889. The

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 277

daily press announced, of course, that "Calvin-
ism must now go," etc., and this stirred up my
father to point out that the committee was not
appointed to "alter the system of doctrine," and
he in general defended both the committee and the
presbytery. This defense of the presbytery gave
rise to the report that my father also favored
revision. No one, who really knew his method
of thought and was familiar with his early train-
ing and opinions could have made any such mis-
take. He had no objection to explanations of
the language of the Confession to make it con-
form to the evangelical proclamation, as he
understood it and preached it, but he devoutly
believed that the Confession of Faith stood for
that proclamation. He saw in it only what he
thought he found in the ninth chapter of Ro-
mans.

When then he joined the debate, and took issue
with the committee appointed by the presbytery
to formulate the changes desired, he not only
was not inconsistent, but did what any one really
knowing his views might have foreseen he would
do. He was, however, charged with inconsist-
ency and defended himself in the following
statement:

"The presbytery — when I was not present, —

278 CONTROVERSY AND

discussed the question of 'revision' in a style
so revolutionary that the papers gave out, in
various forms, the idea that — as they put it — ' Cal-
vinism must go.'

"A committee was appointed to frame reso-
lutions and indicate the extent of 'revision' de-
sired. It began with strong protestations that the
system of doctrine must not be touched, and
then indicated the points to be amended. A
time was fixed for discussion, which was not
then entered upon.

" I remarked that I hoped the ' world-enlighten-
ing editors ' would give as much prominence to
this paper as they had done to the other state-
ments. I referred to the preservation of the
doctrine; 1 had no reference to the details.

"In consequence of this statement, some of
the revisers — ignoring the facts contemplated in
my words, misapprehended them, and charged
me with change of attitude, when opposing the
proposed changes. When discussion came I
pointed out that in the dropping of chapter iii
the Committee took exactly the ground of the
Cumberland Presbyterians, and that if the As-
sembly accepted this change we must apologize
to them, and ask them to join with us.

" Other reasons were stated, into which I need

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 279

not go: but all the counter-arguments made, and
since written, only deepen the conviction that too
many of the friends of revision are not in sym-
pathy with the ' system of doctrine,' and that —
while an explanatory statement might avert some
incidental evil — revision as favored, would do
more harm than good.

" The plea was made that our Calvinistic state-
ments kept good young men from the ministry.
With exclusive regard to this statement I called
attention to the authorized statistics of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian ministry showing that the
want of ministers is a real evil, with them not-
withstanding the elimination of the matter
thought to be undesirable, from the confession."

This allusion to the Cumberland Presbyterians
called forth from some of them who misunder-
stood his position, sharp criticism. This was the
more inexcusable as he had fought their battle in
the " Pan Presbyterian Alliance " when he urged
that they should be included as belonging to
historic Presbyterianism, not on the basis of de-
tails of doctrine, but on the basis of broad
principles and history.

To this criticism he replied in the same state-
ment already quoted:

"And now the dear Cumberland brethren are

28o CONTROVERSY AND

lecturing me for an attack on them, when' the
only thing done was to notice their condition, as
publicly described,' as an answer to the intima-
tion that we would get more candidates if we
had not the pointed Calvinism. My opposition
to the proposed removal of chapter iii — which is
the main point — is that to alter it, as proposed,
would require other alterations to preserve the
consistency of the whole, and the truths assailed
are as pointedly asserted in Scripture as in our
Confession, and were needed then, and are
needed now, as protests against errors more or
less congenial to human pride and self-sufficiency.

" Our friends sometimes fail to look at a state-
ment in the light of the circumstances calling it
forth, and the uses it was meant to serve. Is
there not a like tendency in relation to statements
of the Confession of Faith, and the inspired wri-
tings themselves ? "

At the meeting held early in 1890, to decide
how far revision should go my father took very

1 The " public description " was from the St. Louis Ob-
server as follows :

"Out of 2,689 churches, only 215 have service every Sab-
bath, and 564 have no regular preaching. Out of 1,595 min-
isters, 720 give all their time to the preaching of the Word.
Not the one-half of either churches or preachers do anything
in the work of missions."

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 281

strong ground against what he considered radical
changes in the Confession of Faith as it stood.
Even those who disagreed entirely with him bear
testimony to the adroitness and force of his argu-
ment against the changes proposed. Some of
those arguments are valid yet, as he tried to show
that simply eliminating a chapter without other
and more radical changes would not improve
conditions, and would spoil the Confessional
statement.

The movement for revision was however, so
strong that he felt something might be said to
correct wrong impressions. Hence he proposed
the following resolutions, in answer to the As-
sembly's question:

Resolved, i. That, endorsing the committee's
adherence to the system of doctrine contained in
our standards, we decline to approve the pro-
posed changes to chapter iii of the Confession of
Faith, for these, among other reasons: that the
removal of all the sections but the first would
imply obligation to modify many other facts of
our standards, and would be generally regarded
as the first and decisive step in the way of other
and vital changes.

2. In view of the misinterpretations, to which,
it is believed by some of the brethren, sections

282 CONTROVERSY AND

3 and 4 and 8 of chapter iii are liable, it be sub-
mitted, to the Assembly if it seems to be need-
ful, to formulate a statement as an explanatory
or declaratory note disclaiming any views, beliefs
or intentions in the direction of these misinterpre-
tations.

3. That in regard to the question of infant
salvation the General Assembly be asked — if it
judge it right, — to formulate a similar brief state-
ment, to the effect that our hope of the salvation
of infants is based not — as some rest it, on their
sinlessness, nor, as others believe, on the virtue
of baptism, but on the grace of God through
Jesus Christ, and the power of the Divine Spirit.

These resolutions, like the negative motion of
Dr. Shedd, were rejected, and when in the spring
a solid delegation pledged to revision, from
which a large vote excluded my father, he felt
that his responsibility for the time had ceased.

In the meantime the attack upon the inaugural
address of Dr. Charles A. Briggs, professor at
Union Seminary had been made, and the Assem-
bly had vetoed his transfer from one chair to an-
other. The legal aspects of the powers of the
Assembly gave rise at once to questions. At a
meeting in June, 1891, of the directors of the
seminary my father took the ground that if the

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 283

relations existing between the seminary and the
Assembly were broken, he would have to resign.
He came on the board, he thought, after consul-
tation with Dr. Adams to represent the Old
School sentiment in its new relation to the work
of the now United Church.

If the seminary, he argued, ceased to be the
work of the United Church he had no place in its
counsels. In a letter to the New York Tribune
of June 12th, 1891, he put plainly his view of the
case, and feeling as he did, and the action of the
directors, taken equally conscientiously having
broken the relation, he resigned from the Board
of Directors. His letter was as follows:

To the Editor of the Tribune.

Sir : — In a report of the last meeting of the Board of Direc-
tors of Union Theological Seminary, furnished I know not by
whom — we had no reporters present — occurs the following
sentence : " It was noticed, however, that the Rev. Dr. John
Hall retired from the meeting on the plea of important engage-
ments elsewhere before a vote was reached."

This is the only reference to myself, and is so liable to a cer-
tain misunderstanding that I feel bound to state the facts.

I was at the meeting from its beginning at three o'clock un-
til a quarter past five, when I had to leave, as I was under a
promise to lecture to a Presbyterian church at White Plains — a
"labor of love," at the request of its acting pastor, and my
valued friend.

Up to the hour of five o'clock, the point urged by several
members (I do not give names, because I have only one object
in mind), was that the seminary, in the arrangement made with

284 CONTROVERSY AND

the General Assembly twenty-one years ago, did what was ruled
against in its charter, what was illegal, and what, in law, for-
feited its rights to its property, and that, therefore, the Assembly
had no power, and could have none, to veto an appointment of
a professor. This plea was supported by high legal authority,
and evidence was given that some of the directors apprehended
all this, when the late Dr. Adams framed the overture made to
the General Assembly, the acceptance of which placed Union
Seminary in a new relation to the Assembly.

To all this, as a matter of fact, I had nothing to say. Legal
technicality is sometimes one thing, and equity quite another.
The question before the board respected our duty to the Assem-
bly under whose " care " we had placed the institution. (See
minutes of Assembly for 1870, pp. 17, 148.) I felt bound to
say that our immediate duty is to go to the Assembly and say
in plain language : " We erred when we placed the institution
under the care of the General Assembly, for we were precluded
by our charter from doing so. We misled you, unintentionally
of course, and gave you powers which we had no right to give.
For twenty-one years we have been under your care, under a
misapprehension, for which we, the directors, are responsible,
and are deeply sorry." So clear did this obligation seem to
the exponent of the defense, that he framed a sentence and of-
fered to put it in his paper, embodying the acknowledgment.
On this paper, though its adoption was moved and seconded,
no vote was taken.

I added that the natural outcome, from the facts stated, must
be the separation of the Union Seminary from the Assembly,
after a relation established, on our own motion, for twenty-one
years, and which made the Assembly responsible for our work,
before the churches ; and that then it would become a question
to some of us whether we could, in the circumstances, remain
members of the board. We invited the Assembly to take us
under its care. It accepted the responsibility, and it acts un-
der a sense of it. We now say to it, " Hands off! We had no
right to put ourselves under your care, as you, and we, and the
world understood it, for these one and twenty years."

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 285

I mention these things " to correct the impression that the
report in the Tribune would suggest, namely, that I had no
opinion on the matter, or that I did not desire to be committed
to any side." My conviction I stated in the plainest way that
I could, urging the obligations on us as men, as Christian men,
as a public Christian body, whose proceedings now interest so
much the community.

I have ventured to put in quotation marks the point which I
hope will be " noted." I have rarely to explain my position,
or defend myself, but as I am to be out of the country for some
little time, I wish to save critics — higher or lower — trouble in
speculating upon my motives. Yours most truly,

J. Hall.

New York, June 12, i8gi.

At a meeting of the Board of Directors in No-
vember, 1892, the resignation was accepted with
expressions of "high appreciation of the service
you have rendered to the seminary during the
long period of your directorship, and their sincere
regret that the pleasurable associations of so
many years should for any reason be termi-
nated."

This action, as my father often said, was quite
independent of any action the General Assembly
might take in the coming trial for heresy of Dr.
Briggs. He, of course, disapproved of the in-
augural address. From his standpoint he could
not be of one mind with what seemed to him a
dangerous position. For higher criticism, as he
understood it, he had no patience, believing that

286 CONTROVERSY AND

all difficulties would ultimately yield to research.
He was quite outspoken from the beginning of
the controversy to the end of it on his own views
of modern theological thought and the critical
views of the origin of sacred scriptures. Like
Dr. McCosh he thought Dr. Briggs wrong in
many of his critical positions, and in public and
private always honestly expressed those views.

At the same time he did not hope much from
a trial for heresy, and exerted himself to the ut-
most to avoid that conclusion. This gave deadly
offense to some of those most interested, to
whom the trial for heresy was a mere means for
warding off revision, and the maintaining the
supremacy of a certain type of thought in the
church. This was what made my father's po-
sition difficult in the extreme. He agreed heartily
in the desire to guard against any radical revision,
he did not and could not enthusiastically share in
the heresy trial as a means to that end.

He had himself no doubt that Dr. Briggs was
technically outside the confessional limits, but he
had no desire to really exclude him, if only he
was satisfied that in the main evangelical essentials
he was in harmony with the mass of believers.
Many thought that had my father gone to the
Assembly in 1891 instead of sending his alternate

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 287

he might have avoided the subsequent trouble.
But in the first place his election was an entire
surprise to him, and he had made arrangements
he could not with honor break; and in the second
place notice had been served upon him by his
natural friends and allies on the conservative side
that they would tolerate no mediation. He felt,
and in view of past events, he undoubtedly
rightly felt, that he could not carry the Assembly
for the only policy he thought just and sensible,
and that by the action of the previous year he
had been relieved of responsibility in the matter.
Never had my father the least doubt as to the
main issue of the inerrancy of Holy Scripture in
all the essentials of its history, nor did he attach
importance to the difficulties raised by mod-
ern criticism. In large measure, in fact, they lay
beyond the sphere of his particular interest. Yet
while for himself this was true, and he would
have personally assented to any definition of in-
spiration however rigorous on these points, he
nevertheless came into contact with men of whose
Christian experience and whose reverent scholar-
ship he had no doubts whatsoever, who could not
accept theories that seemed to him rational and
even obvious. The attitude of Scotch scholar-
ship had in this matter the greatest weight with

288 CONTROVERSY AND

him.' Naturally traditions led him to look rather
to Scotland than to either America or Germany
for the intellectual stimulus every thinking man
needs. And in Scotland he saw theologian after
theologian pass from the extreme position to the
looser, as he counted it, definition of inspiration.
Moreover the traditions of the struggle for ortho-
doxy in Ireland excluded heresy-trials. Dr. Cooke
had resolutely refused to commit the Synod to
this step. "Guard," he advised, " the entrance to
the church, but suffer all those now within to re-

' It may be permitted here for the present writer to add a
personal word. It was not unnaturally argued that the position
taken by the writer affected my father's conduct in this strug-
gle. This was not the case. From the outset there was a full
understanding between father and son ; and although un-
doubtedly it was painful that convictions differed, in letter after
letter assurances were given of the utmost confidence in the
sincerity of those convictions, and unfaithfulness to them
would have given my father deepest pain. When the time to
speak out seemed to the writer to have come, an opening in
another sister church offered itself. This seemed a ready so-
lutipn of the difficulty, but my father resolutely refused to have
that step taken, and urged retention of my connection with the
Presbyterian Church, only enjoining gentleness and moderation
in the maintaining of my convictions. The slightest hint from
my father that he doubted my rights within the lines of the
Presbyterial communion, or the least indication that he re-
garded it as a hindrance to his own free action would at any
stage of the controversy been sufficient to have led me quietly
to withdraw. All such steps my father steadily and continu-
ously opposed.

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 289

main in peace." The extreme " Arian " party, as
it was called withdrew to a remonstrant Synod,
but the clerk of the Assembly, after publicly
avowing his Unitarian position, was not even dis-
turbed in his holding the clerkship.

Moreover the methods of the extreme party
were distasteful to him. He felt somewhat as
Dr. McCosh is said to have done, that Dr. Briggs
should be answered and refuted, but that a
heresy-trial was no answer. There was no at-
tempt to "shirk" issues, as one of the extreme
party charged him with doing. He separated
himself at once from Union Seminary when he
considered his own position compromised, he
vigorously opposed revision of the standards, and
his rejected resolution would have been agreeable
to Dr. Shedd or any of the really responsible con-
servatives, he attempted to avoid a heresy-trial
and stood manfully for peace, and although
never wavering in his own personal convictions,
he was willing to put up with "weaker breth-
ren" if only Christ was preached. The so-called
"liberal" men knew and respected his position,
the taunts and insults came from a few whose
intemperate words and actions could not shake
my father's faith in the conservative position, but
in whose methods he could have little part and

290 CONTROVERSY AND

in whose aims he did not always have con-
fidence.

In this spirit he also refused to have the Home
Board made a partisan agency by which the
church could be " purged," as one correspondent
urged upon him, from those who refused the
shibboleths of the extreme faction. Instinctively
he felt that Protestantism rested upon the har-
mony of reason and faith, and his confidence was
firm that the matter had only to be discussed
rightly, and that faith would gain the victory.
As one, a member of his session, and himself an
outspoken partisan wrote to him: "I have no-
ticed the impertinent reference to your private
affairs in the Tribune and your answer to it. I
wish to say that your course in keeping free
from the strife and contentions, clamors and evil
speakings on both sides in the Briggs contro-
versy, I consider eminently wise and proper.
You are not called upon to be a partisan on
either side if you prefer peace and brotherly
kindness; and I am sure your consistent course
will approve itself to all your people, and to all
considerate men."

He, moreover never avoided any opportunity
of expressing himself, publicly and privately, as
his correspondence and printed documents show.

ATTEMPTED PEACEMAKING 291

on the issues of the case. In the heat and strife
however his counsels of patience and moderation
were unheeded, perhaps a calmer review than is
now possible of the whole history will establish
the wisdom of his course. To have, however,
acted otherwise than he did would have been a
complete departure from the traditions of a life-
time, and a change in the entire habit of his mind
and heart. It was therefore to him that younger
men all over the country wrote asking advice
after the condemnation of Dr. Briggs at Wash-
ington as to what they should do under the cir-
cumstances, and to them the answer was uni-
formly "stay where God has put you, if you can
honestly preach Christ as the Saviour of the
world, and work in harmony with your brethren
in the Lord." He felt deeply sorry that so many
had accepted, what seemed to him, a fallacious
and imperfect conception of inspiration, and that
so wide-spread a falling off from traditional
opinion was manifest; he thought greater care
should be exercised by presbyteries in the admit-
ting of men to the ministry; but he saw no
remedy in heresy-trials, and did confidantly be-
lieve that truth would assert herself in her own
way.
His course was watched and approved by

292 CONTROVERSY

thoughtful friends both conservative and ad-
vanced on the other side of the Atlantic, and he
felt after the first heats of the controversy were
over that calm discussion and "more scholar-
ship" would relieve the situation. What he re-
garded as essential he once formulated in a paper
on church unity. He wrote:

"If 1 were asked, what is most promotive of
true church unity, I could make but one reply.
Let there be the preaching and teaching of the
inspired word. Let the Saviour be held up as
prophet, priest and king, through whom alone
access is had to the Father; as He is the Chief
Shepherd and Bishop of souls let His authority
be supreme in the Church. Let an educated and
earnest body of men use the word, sacraments
and prayer, as indicated in the New Testament,
and in reliance — not on human attractions, social
influences, or the energy of human flesh, but on
the power of the Holy Spirit, and believers
realizing the one Lord, the one faith, and the one
baptism, and so the one relation, will be seen as
one by their Father in heaven, and so recognized
by their fellow-men."

XII. SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

HE ABIDETH FAITHFUL

Friends I love may die or leave me,
Friends I trust may treacherous prove,

But Thou never wilt deceive me,
O my Saviour! in Thy love.

Change can ne'er this union sever,

Death its links may never part,
Yesterday, to-day, forever

Thou the same Redeemer art.

On Thy cross love made Thee bearer

Of transgressions not Thine own,
And that love still makes Thee sharer

In our sorrows on the throne.

In the days of worldly gladness,

Cold and proud our hearts may be ;
But to whom, in fear and sadness,

Can we go but unto Thee ?

From that depth of gloom and sorrow.
Where Thy love to man was shown.

Every bleeding heart may borrow
Hope and strength to bear its own.

— The JSIissionary Herald, 18^8.

294

XII

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

DECREES ^ND HONORS. INTERDENOMINATIONAL FELLOW-
SHIP. CHURCH UNITY. FAMILY SORROWS. THEWARSAWIAK
CASE. THE DEMANDED ^RESIGNATION. THE CONCREGA-
TIONAL PROTEST. THE CHURCH IREORGANIZED.

NO man ever sought recognition less tlian the
subject of this biography. He was by na-
ture both reserved and shy. The calm self-pos-
session that marked him in the pulpit and on the
platform sprang from his habit of constant self-
control and from his profound sense that he had
a message which was not simply his own.

It was hard to persuade him in his student days
that he was the right one to go as representing
his class to Connaught. A proud shyness marked
him as a student, and is noticed both in his cor-
respondence and his diary of those days. The
prominence he attained to in Ireland was thrust
upon him. He took the first outside honor that
was offered him — the Queen's commissionership
of education in Ireland — because it gave him a
field of congenial usefulness, and because it rep-
resented a principle, and not for the honor it
295

296 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

brought with it. While highly self-respecting
and free from artificial humility, he genuinely
shrank from publicity and all mere notoriety.

His old and warmly attached friend — Mr.
George H. Stuart — always a little amused and
amazed him by an utter freedom in public, and
by the way he enjoyed crowds, enthusiasm, noise
and demonstration. These were not congenial
to my father. He loved order, and his tastes
were sober and quiet. His reserve made his
intimate friendships very few, yet he thoroughly
enjoyed the fellowship of his brethren. He was
warmly interested in the rather distinguished
group of men with whom he worked in Dublin,
and who one by one made marks in life for them-
selves in various directions. He kept alive the
memories of the little circle of student days,
already mentioned. When he came to New
York he was at once welcomed into a well-
known ministerial circle, whose associations he
treasured until his death. Another gathering al-
ways deeply interested him, namely the minis-
terial meeting on Mondays. He never missed it
unless hindered by important duties or some cir-
cumstance he could not control.

One of the keen pleasures of his life was the
recurring conventions of the Scotch-Irish in

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 297

America. He looked forward with what was for
him eager pleasure to these gatherings. He gen-
erally shared this pleasure with JVIr. Robert Bon-
ner who took an active interest in the life of the
society. It was my father's lot to often preach
before the convention, and nowhere did he ever
feel more completely in touch with his audience
than when taking part in the "old-time meeting"
which formed a part of the convention's exer-
cises. The first degree was received by my
father while still in Ireland from the University
of Washington and Jefferson, 1865, and after he
came to America various degrees were given
him. In 1886, Columbia University bestowed on
him the degree of LL. D., but he especially ac-
cepted with satisfaction the degree of LL. D.
from Trinity College, Dublin, which was given
in 1891, but received personally by him in Dublin
in 1893. Trinity College being wholly under the
control of the Episcopal church has not often
thus honored Irish Presbyterians. A notable ex-
ception was the case of Dr. Henry Cooke, who
however defended the establishment, whereas
my father was known to be an open antagonist
of that policy. The degree was conferred in
"recognition of your distinguished merits," and
was understood to be a special recognition not

298 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

only of the successful career in New York, but
of past services in connection with Irish affairs.
The conferring of this degree not only greatly
gratified my father, but he spent a most delight-
ful few days in Dublin among his old co-work-
ers, on the Board of Education, Presbyterian,
Episcopalian and Roman Catholic.

It was part of the joy of his service in New
York that he could be of use to many branches
of the Church of Christ. Probably no voice has
been so much heard in so many different denom-
inations as that of my father. On Sabbath even-
ings he generally preached or spoke somewhere
out of his own church. He delighted to be of
use to churches and brethren less favored by cir-
cumstances than he and his charge were.

In the year 1875 he delivered the Yale lectures,
already mentioned, and from that on almost every
year he spoke to the various classes of the Yale
Theological Seminary. Close and warm friend-
ships sprang up in the Congregational Church
as a result of these visits and he took a deep in-
terest in many of the men whom he came to
know in the theological classes he thus ad-
dressed.

The year 1896 is marked in his diary as a year
of special blessing and peace. The health of his

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 299

wife and a son about whom he had had anxiety
had so much improved that he had practically no
concern in this regard. The work of the church
seemed to be going on with every evidence of
prosperity and peace. In the summer of that
year he went as a delegate to the Evangelical
Alliance, which met in London from June 30th
to July 4th. In the Alliance he had always taken
a deep interest. It seemed to him to be the only
practical Christian unity possible, at present, ob-
tainable. He rejoiced always in its activity and
more than once stood up to defend it against
those who saw in it nothing but a sentiment.
He felt that denomination differences had a
meaning, but that there was a spirit deeper and
more unifying than the external bond. He once
wrote:

" Like many other words and phrases in common
use, 'Church unity' needs to be defined. In
the minds of some it means: ' Let the denomina-
tions or sects come and join us, just as we are;
and so let us have unity.' With others it
means: 'Let us work together, not against one
another but against ignorance, worldliness and
vice.' This is the idea represented in the
Evangelical Alliance, and the idea which has my
sympathy. As an illustration of its working I

300 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

can exchange pulpits with Baptist, Congre-
gational, Methodist, and other brethren, and
show that while we have our several forms of
machinery and distinctive features in our Church-
life, yet we have the same message in substance to
deliver to the people. It is desirable that this
form of unity should be realized more and more,
so that economy might be practiced, and if a
modest village has a couple of congregations
equal to the wants of the place other two might
not press in and at the cost of Missionary Boards
push competitive effort."

That autumn's work showed an extraordinary
amount of activity. Before Christmas the visit-
ing was well in hand, and the year closed
in the journal with a characteristic prayer of
thanksgiving. The peace and quiet activity of
the year was however, not carried on into the
follovk'ing one 1897. The first shadow was the
sudden and severe illness of the present writer,
and at a certain stage hope of recovery was sur-
rendered and my father was called to Chicago,
where my charge then was. For some days of
anxiety and suspense he remained haunting the
bedroom for some gleam of hope. He preached
on Sunday morning in the vacant pulpit, and
came home to find marks of improvement; but

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 301

the rejoicing was cut short by the dreadful news
of the death in far-off Santa Barbara of the third
son Richard, whose career as a surgeon had been
brilliant, but who had been banished by ill-health
to California.

In suspense still about me, and burdened by the
dreadfully unexpected news from California, he
hurried home to be of comfort to the sorrowing
mother. And in the same spring a dearly loved
grandchild was stricken down, and hope and
hopelessness, and long periods of suspense were
brought to sad termination; and deeply did my
father feel the sorrow of his dearly loved
daughter.

In the preoccupation caused by these sorrows
upon sorrows there was brought to his attention
the matter of an assistantship. This question had
often come up ; that my father was overworked no
one doubted; but that any one could do much to
help him was seriously questioned. He had him-
self a great dislike of repeating the experiment of
Dublin, but the chief difficulty was that the mo-
ment an assistantship was planned, wires were
pulled and arrangements made to force upon the
church men whom he considered unwise choices.
So vigorous were these efforts that again and
again the only way out of the difficulty seemed

302 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

to be the postponing of any choice. After
calmly viewing the evidence it is hard to resist
the impression that some of the bitterness that
clouded these last days was the direct result of
these disappointed plans. The requirements of
the place of assistant or co-pastor to one who had
for thirty years borne such a burden alone were
indeed many. It was needful that in theological
opinion such an one should share the main in-
tellectual outlines of the pulpit instruction. My
father had many feelings, which he himself
would not have called more than prejudices, but
which he cherished, and to have put them aside
would have lost him much discomfort. He had
no "principle," for instance, in the matter of
Church music, but he was deeply prejudiced
against the ordinary Church choir. He had
suffered from it once, and disliked it. What
other Churches did was a matter of almost in-
difference to him; he sometimes even enjoyed a
hearty chorus or a fine rendering of some simple
church music in churches where he was a visitor,
but for himself he disliked anything save con-
gregational singing where he was responsible for
the service.

To the present writer he often said that the
embarrassments of an assistantship lay much

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 303

along this line of putting a yoke upon a younger
man, such as he had himself felt in his earlier
days to be irksome, and which he yet felt would
be necessary if the arrangement should really suc-
ceed. Rightly or wrongly he now felt that some
who were not wholly loyal and friendly to him
were pushing this matter with selfish purpose in
view.

In about the year 1889 there had come a young
and evidently highly gifted converted Jew, Her-
mann Warszawiak by name to New York with
strong letters of commendation, and with personal
letters to my father. After some signs of power
in preaching to his countrymen he was employed
by the New York City Mission, and carried on
his work with seeming success. Letters then
came to New York of a confidential nature to my
father warning him that the young Jew would be
attacked, and urging him to protect the mission-
ary against what was said to be a conspiracy.
Shortly after this the connection between Mr.
j-jermann Warszawiak and the New York City
Mission was severed, and a committee under-
took to manage the work he had begun. This
arrangement did not succeed, in part because the
committee did not have time to attend to the
matter, in part because perhaps Mr. Warszawiak

304 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

was not easily managed. The work had my
father's full endorsement. He trusted Mr. War-
szawiak fully, although even then strongly ur-
ging him to carefulness in money matters.
Attacks began now to be made upon the young
missionary's character. These were of a vague
and general nature. At once my father investi-
gated those that were sufficiently definite to be
investigated, and in one case at least the charge
was at once proved to be a gross and clumsy
slander. Mr. Warszawiak was responsible to
the session of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church, and desired to be taken under the care
of presbytery. Here objection was made and
one accuser produced documents which he alleged
contained conclusive evidence of bad character.
This allegation is now known to have been a
misstatement, for all the charges brought against
Mr. Warszawiak were subsequent to that meet-
ing, and no evidence can yet be called " conclu-
sive " of anything. ' Having been warned of
such attacks it was no wonder that my father
constantly demanded evidence, and having in at
least three several instances proved conclusively

'The following is the text of the judicial finding at the last
Ecclesiastical trial. To the Moderator and Session of the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church,

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 305

that charges made were base slanders, it was the
least that he could do to suspend judgment.

Sitting as a Judicial Court of Jesus Christ,
In the Matter of the charges preferred

— against —

Hermann Warszavviak,

a member of the Church.

The undersigned, the committee appointed in the above
matter to report what course of proceedings should be taken
therein, beg leave to report, that they have considered the pro-
ceedings heretofore had in this matter before this session, The
Presbytery of New York, the Synod of New York and the Gen-
eral Assembly, and have examined the charges and specifica-
tions containing the names of proposed witnesses in their sup-
port ; and also the two petitions of the accused dated respect-
ively June 28th, 189S, and October 25th, 1899, asking that a
new trial be issued.

The charges are that the accused on certain dates during the
months of January, February and March, 1897, ^'''°" "^"'^ '°5'
money by gambling in a public gambling-house and pool-room.
All of the witnesses named in the specifications in support of
the charges (except some who were called on the former trial
only to prove formal matters which did not touch the charges of
gambling) are professional detectives ; none of them are mem-
bers of the Church (except possibly one) and some of them are
not even adherents to any form of Christian faith.

The evidence of such witnesses alone, even supposing that
they should swear to the truth of the charges, would not be con-
sidered by many fair-minded Christian members of our Church
as conclusive of the guilt of a fellow-member, when he denied
on oath the truth of their evidence, as was the case in the
former trial.

There is no suggestion or rumor that the accused has since

3o6 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

At last the trial took place. Of that so-called
trial the less that is said the better. Whatever

the dates mentioned in the charges, now nearly three years old,
been guilty of any of the acts charged against him, and he has
ever since continued to and still does teach the Gospel of our
Lord in an acceptable and public manner to members of his
kindred.

The former trial, and subsequent proceedings before the
Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly, created very great
excitement, and caused very bitter and unchristian feeling, not
only among members of our own congregation but among the
members of the whole Church, and was the occasion of much
scandal to the Church before the general public.

Your committee are consequently of the opinion that further
prosecution of said charges could not result in any good or to
the purity of the Church, but on the contrary, would disturb the
peace and unity of our own congregation and of the church;
and would do great injury to the cause of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in our midst, and they therefore recommend that this
court do not proceed with a retrial of the accused upon said
charges, and that this court pass the following preambles and
resolution, namely :

Whereas it is now nearly three years since the dates of the
alleged immoral conduct charged against Hermann Warsza-
wiak, namely, gambling at a certain public gambling-house or
pool-room ;

And Whereas, The said Hermann Warszawiak has since
that date been debarred from the Communion of this Church ;

And Whereas, He has during that time been leading a
moral life and has not ceased to publicly teach the blessed gos-
pel of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the people of his own kindred ;

And Whereas, The witnesses named in the specifications to
support the charges (except some who were called on the
former trial only to prove formal matters not touching the
charges of gambling), are professional detectives, are not mem-

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 307

Mr. Warszawiak may have been — and some are
still inclined to suspend judgment on this point —
the trial was no model of what a calm Christian
court should be under such circumstances. In
the finding my father was in a minority. His
verdict however, of "not proven" was sustained
by the New York Synod in 1898 after my father
had passed from the field of conflict. That action
was, " It appears that injustice may have been
done Warszawiak in the original trial before the
session in not appointing him any counsel, in not

bers of the Church (except possibly one) and some of them are
not even adherents of any Christian faith, and therefore are not
such that unqualified credence should be given them ;

And Whereas, The former trial and subsequent proceedings
therein have been a source of continual irritation and a hin-
drance to kindly brotherly Christian feeling in the Church, and
a detriment to the advancement of Christ's Kingdom in our
midst ;

Therefore^ Resolved, That it is the judgment of this court that
a retrial of Hermann Warszawiak upon the charges heretofore
preferred against him would not result in any good or to the
purity of the Church, but on the contrary, would disturb the
peace and unity of our congregation and of the church ;

Therefore, Resolved, That the said charges be, and they hereby
are, dismissed, and that he, Hermann Warszawiak, be and
hereby is restored to the communion of this church as a mem-
ber in good and regular standing.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

Dated, this 3d day of November, 1899.

This action became the action of the Court, though not
unanimously.

3o8 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

granting him access to the records, in totally
striking out his testimony for contumacy, and in
allowing undue cross-examination into financial
matters not included in the original charges. " The
appeal was therefore sustained, and the case was
ordered to be retried.' Rightly or wrongly my

• The full text of the Synod's decision is as follows :—

The appeal of Hermann Warszawiak from the judgment of
the Presbytery of New York, sustaining the finding and judg.
ment of the session of the Fifth Avenue Church of the City of
New York, having been found in order by the Synod of New
York, on the igth day of October, 1898, and a Judicial Com-
mission having been appointed to hear and determine the issues
raised by such appeal ; and such commission of Synod having
met on the 19th, 20th and 21st days of October, 1898, and
proceeding in due form according to the Book of Discipline,
§ 99 : the judgment, the notice of appeal, the appeal and the
specifications of the errors alleged having been read, together
with so much of the records of the case as was admitted by
mutual consent of the parties, the appellant and respondent
having been heard at length, the members of the judicatory ap-
pealed from having been heard, and also the members of the
commission; the vote having been taken on each specification
of error alleged.

" The said Judicial Commission, after voting upon each ex-
ception specified in the notice of appeal, does determine and
adjudge that the Presbytery of New York did err in hearing
and adjudging the appeal of Hermann Warszawiak from the
session of the Fifth Avenue Church of the City of New York.

" It finds the lower court in error in irregularities in the pro-
ceedings : I spec. 7 and 12, in refusal to entertain and consider
complaints in the form of objections and exceptions. II spec.
4, in refusal of reasonable indulgence. Ill spec. 4, 5, 6 and
12, in hastening to a decision. V spec. 3 and 5, and therefore it

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 309

father was again convinced tliat the charges of
gambling were trumped up, and certainly no
court of civil justice would admit the evidence
that was produced. He was staggered in his faith
in Mr. Warszawiak for a little time by an alleged
confession of Mr. Warszawiak's to a prominent
citizen of New York. But my father was a good
listener, and was of a curiously skeptical mind in
every-day affairs. He had two interviews with
the gentleman and convinced himself that the
statements made were, to say the least, inaccu-
rate. He marked two such glaring inaccuracies
in the account given him that he lost faith in his

sustains the appeal, and reverses the judgment of the Presby-
tery of New York.

" Further, it seems to the commission that injustice may have
been done Mr .Warszawiak, in the original trial before the session,
in not appointing him any counsel, in not granting him access to
the records, in totally striking out his testimony for contumacy,
and in allowing undue cross-examination into financial matters
not included in the original charges.

" It is therefore the order of this Synod that the appeal be
sustained, and that the Presbytery of New York be instructed
to remand this case to the session of the Fifth Avenue Church
with instructions to retry Hermann Warszawiak upon amended
charges, including the misuse of moneys contributed for mis-
sionary purposes."

On appeal the Assembly of 1899 sustained the Synod save
only striking out the instructions " to retry on amended
charges " on the ground that original jurisdiction pertained only
to the session.

310 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

informant's powers of objective observation. At
the same time lie felt that he could not endorse
the work to others until the matter was cleared
up. This was previous to the trial before the
session. At that trial he was still farther
convinced that whatever might be the truth,
no conclusive proof of guilt was in the
possession of those prosecuting Mr. War-
szawiak.

The matter was still farther complicated bj'the
somewhat intemperate defense of Mr. Warsza-
wiak by a well-known evangelist from England,
who did not confine himself to the facts of the
case but impugned in an unwise manner 'the
motives and lives of those who, no doubt, sin-
cerely distrusted Mr. Warszawiak. For that at-
tack my father felt sincerely sorry, but he had no
reason for interfering, as he was neither consuhed
by nor even well-known to the author of that
attack.

My father, it is true, had lost confidence in the
calm impartiality of some of the chief assailants;
and the outrageous misstatements of one of them
had completely undermined my father's previous
reliance upon his fairness and good judgment;
at the same time his one steady demand was evi-
dence and facts. And these were never forth-

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 311

coming. The last authentic judgment' of my.
father was written from Buxton, England, in June,
1898, when in a letter to the Tribune of New
York, he said: —

To the Editor of the Tribune.

Sir: — ^May I ask the insertion of this brief statement
on a matter concerning whiclr more letters have come to me
than I have been able to answer.

Mr. Warszawiak came to Nevi' York bringing from Europe
the strongest letters of commendation, including one of intro-
duction to myself from a prominent minister in Edinburgh.

He was taken, after a little, into connection with the New
York City Mission, and for a considerable time had strong in-
dorsement from its officers. After separating from it, and also
from a committee that took up his work, he went on with it in-
dependently and with apparent usefulness.

■The stages of the case were as follows: About 1889 War-
szawiak came to New York. Employed by New York City
Missions. United with Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in
1890. Honorably discharged by City Missions in 1894-5.
Carried on his work independently. Applied for admission to
New York Presbytery, 1897. Accused and convicted before
Session of Church, 1897. Appealed to presbytery and trial be-
fore a commission, 1897. Appealed to Synod October, 1898.
Appeal sustained, but new charges ordered. Appealed to As-
sembly 1899 against that order. Sustained. Synod refused to
obey Assembly and asked for instruction. Warszawiak asked
for new trial before Church Session. Trial had before Session
and case dismissed 1899. Appeal and complaint lodged against
action of Session in dismissing. Presbytery found appeal and
complaint " not in order." General Assembly at St. Louis dis-
missed whole matter. Mr. Warszawiak therefore to-day in good
standing in Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

312 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

The cliarge against him, which was referred to the Presby-
tery of the Fifth Avenue Church Session, namely, gambling,
was held by a minority of the session to be " not proven." My
opinion was with the minority. The matter of his use of
money, though incidentally brought to the notice of the session,
had not been referred to it.

Mr. Warszawiak went to Europe, it was understood, to ar-
range money matters. Since that I have had no communica-
tion from him, and accordingly I am not in a condition to con-
tinue indorsement of his plans for pecuniary aid. It appears to
be my duty, therefore, to say that — whatever the state of the
case may be, and whatever the issue of his appeal to the church
courts — it is impossible for me to answer intelligently the ques-
tion as to his financial management.

John Hall.

Buxton, England, June ly, i8gS.

To many my father seemed simply obstinate,
not knowing how many obscure motives on the
part of those prosecuting the case were quite
obvious to him. The young Jew was really very
helpless and friendless. My father had moreover
a keen sense of justice. He felt that in accord-
ance with Anglo-Saxon tradition he must stand
by an accused man and treat him as innocent
until he should be proved guilty. All the old-
fashioned chivalry of his nature was appealed to,
and he demanded that whether Mr. Warszawiak
were guilty or not, he at least should have a fair
trial and his rightful opportunity to establish his
innocence if possible.

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 313

This unhappy incident produced many alien-
ations. Moreover the conditions in the church
had much changed. Nearly all the old advisers
of my father, who had welcomed him to the
country had passed away. The restlessness of
American life knows little of sentiment, and ties
are easily broken. There had been discontent
on the part of some of those with whom my
father was working with his policy in many di-
rections. Some disliked his course in the the-
ological controversy of the past years; nothing
but a bitter partisanship, of which he was inca-
pable, would have satisfied them.

Others desired changes that could not easily be
made while his "prejudices" existed against
what they wished. Some of the younger gener-
ation did not, perhaps, value his careful pastoral
work as highly as an older generation had done.
When he took the part of Warszawiak with the
minority of four, it became evident that to some
extent the majority of the session was on trial.
As early as July, 1897, a rather harsh coarse letter
from a member of the session informed my
father of a private meeting called to consider dis-
placing him. This was a fearful shock to a man
bowed with sorrow, and was perhaps all the
more disastrous in its effects that it was borne

314 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

alone and in silence. On the return in the
autumn of that year another such private meet-
ing seems to have been held, and my father was
given to understand that it acted in the sense of
the greater part of the congregation. He ac-
quiesced. A special committee of session was
appointed to consider the whole matter, and he
was made a member of it. Of course that mem-
bership was purely pro forma, he simply assented
to whatever was done as the minute introduced
and carried shows. That minute was as fol-
lows:

Whereas our pastor. Rev. John Hall, D. D.,
LL. D., after thirty years of arduous labors
amongst us feels constrained to seek relief from
the burdens and responsibilities of the pastorate,
and has advised us of his intention to apply to
presbytery to dissolve the pastoral relations exist-
ing between him and this church, therefore,

Resolved, That this session desires to place
on record its very deep sense of Dr. Hall's untir-
ing and unselfish labors, and the great blessings
which have attended his ministry. Coming to
this country and becoming our pastor in 1867, he
has gone in and out amongst us for thirty years,
preaching the Word, visiting our sick, burying
our dead, and bringing comfort and help to souls

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 315

cast down and sorrowful. The prosperity and
usefulness of our church for so many years bear
witness to the blessings which have attended his
labors. Nor have these labors been confined to
this church alone: Church Extension in this
City, Home and Foreign Missions, Ministerial
Education, Support and Relief, all Church work
has been benefited by his services. Indeed, no
form of religious or philanthropic labor can be
said to be alien to him. His influence for good
has been felt and recognized throughout the
whole Christian world, not merely in his own
but in every other evangelical denomination.

Resolved, That a meeting of the church and
congregation be called to take action on the
pastor's resignation, on Wednesday evening,
January 19, 1898, at 8 o'clock in the lecture room,
and that due notice of the same be given from the
pulpit at the morning service on the two preced-
ing Sabbaths, as required by the laws of this State.

Resolved, That we will recommend to the
church and congregation at the meeting so to be
called, that they accede to the pastor's request,
and for that purpose that they appoint commis-
sioners to presbytery to unite with him in seeking
a dissolution of the pastoral relation.

And further that we will recommend them to

3i6 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS'

appoint Dr. Hall "Pastor Emeritus," and vote
him an appropriate retiring allowance.

And that we will also recommend that they
appoint a committee to cooperate with a similar
committee, to be appointed by the session, to
take steps Iool<.ing to the choosing of a suit-
able successor to the pastorate.

Resolved, That we unite with our pastor in
requesting the Rev. Dr. Howard Duffield of the
Presbytery of New York to act as moderator at
the said meeting of the church and congregation.

This minute was adopted at a special meeting
of the session held on the 6th of January, and
my father read the following letter:

yi2 Fifth Avenue,
'New York, 6th January, iS^8.
Dear Brethren of the Session:

Having been privileged to preach the Gospel for more
than forty-eight years, and having been pastor of the Fifth
Avenue congregation for thirty years, I have decided — after
lengthened and prayerful consideration of the matter — to re-
sign the pastorate of the church, and so to give opportunity to
the congregation to choose a successor of requisite energy and
vigor for the work ; and I pray God to guide the congregation
— in which I have felt the deepest interest, and for the spiritual
good of whose members I have labored — in the selection.

Whatever appears to the session to be best in the circumstances
— whether to give up pastoral work and preaching at once, or
to go on until a successor is found — I am ready to undertake.
I am, Dear Brethren,

Fraternally yours,
J. Hall.

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 317

The session adjourned, and met again on thie
I7tii of January, 1898, when the resolutions ap-
pended were passed:

Resolved, That the session recommend to the
congregation that in accordance with the pastor's
wish and the report of our committee, the fol-
lowing resolutions be passed:

Resolved, That this church unites with the
Reverend Dr. John Hail in his application to
presbytery for the dissolution of the pastoral re-
lations, and appoint commissioners to represent
this church in presbytery, and instruct them to
support our pastor's application, to take effect on
the 15th day of June, 1898, and not earlier.

Resolved, That the Reverend Dr. John Hall be
appointed pastor emeritus of this church from
and after the 15th day of June, 1898, and that an
annual salary of Five thousand ($5,000) dollars
be paid to him during the continuance of such
relations.

Resolved, That commissioners above named
be authorized with the trustees of this church to
execute an agreement to that effect on behalf of
this church and congregation.

The reading however of the letter and the reso-
lutions had called out a storm of questions.
Those questions were imprudently answered by

3i8 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

members of the session, and the private meetings
became public property.

Although the action had been hitherto unani-
mous certain members of the session felt deeply
hurt at things said to the now weary and heart-
sick pastor. That the resignation was forced
upon my father was not only known, but even
brutally boasted about by one of those opposed
to him. The storm of indignation that at once
broke loose was a tribute to the immense power
my father yielded. The session was at once in
difficulty, and felt that they were without sup-
port in the congregation. From the situation
only some strong word of support from the pas-
tor stating that the resignation was wholly vol-
untary could save them. But a truthful denial
was under the circumstances impossible. One
of the members of his session summed up the situ-
ation in a letter to my father of the i8th of
January:

My DEAR Dr. Hall :

I must express to you ray feelings of sadness in the
treatment you have received from the majority of our session.
I cannot forget the harsh words spoken to you by some of
them — you who have been so faithful and so untiring for such a
number of years. I cannot understand how they can expect
you now to come and stand in the breach which their blunder-
ing has brought about.

After leaving the room last evening some of them said that

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 319

if you would write a strong letter all would be made right. I
said how can you expect Dr. Hall to write a strong letter after
the way some of the session have spoken to him. I do not
think you should say any more than what you did in your letter
of resignation. If you leave hundreds will follow you, and
leave the church to go elsewhere, so it will not be for the good
of the congregation. I trust you will stand where you are and
let the congregation show you and the session what they desire.
I am yours very truly.

Hundreds of letters came pouring in. Many
called, and in three days it was plain that the
resignation under such circumstances would lead
a large number to leave the church. Members
of the session had led my father to believe that
practically the whole of the congregation had
been sounded, and desired his resignation;
he was now willing to leave the whole matter
to the congregation. This was the course urged
by advisers in whom he trusted.

On the nineteenth of January the congregation
met and passed the following resolutions:

Whereas, The session of the Fifth Avenue
Presbyterian Church has called this meeting of
the congregation to take action on the proposed
resignation of our pastor, Dr. John Hall, referred
to in his letter to the session under date of Jan-
uary 6th, 1898,

Resolved, That the congregation respectfully
decline to accept or to approve of such proposed

320 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

resignation, and also decline to appoint commis-
sioners for the purpose of uniting witti the pas-
tor in seel<:ing a dissolution of the pastoral rela-
tion by the presbytery; and

Resolved, That adopting as an expression of the
feelings of this congregation, the several peti-
tions and resolutions of the Ladies' Auxiliary, the
Young Women's Missionary Society, the Young
People's Association, the Sunday-school, and of
the members of the church and congregation
presented herewith as part of this resolution, and
tendering to Dr. Hall the loving assurance of co-
operation with him in the future work of this
church, the congregation urgently request him to
reconsider and withdraw any and all action taken by
him looking towards such resignation ; and further,

Resolved, That Messrs. Robert Bonner, Samuel
B. Schieffelin, William Brookfield, J. Henry
Work and Mrs. Theodore Weston be appointed
a committee to communicate these resolutions to
Dr. Hall; and that this meeting do stand ad-
journed for two weeks from this date, for their
report, and for such other action as may be
deemed proper.

January 14th, i8g8.
At a special meeting of the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Boards
of Home and Foreign Missions of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church, called by the Executive Committee and held this day

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 321

with a large attendance of its members, the following preamble
and resolution were unanimously adopted :

Whereas, We, the members of the Ladies of the Auxiliary
to the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions of the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church, have heard with deep sorrow and
regret of the resignation of our beloved pastor, Rev. John Hall,
D. D., LL. D.

And Whereas, We, as an organization representing an im-
portant department of the work of the women of the church, and
profoundly loving the church to which we are bound by the
closest ties of inheritance and personal consecration, feel it our
duty and our privilege to accept our full share of responsibility
for every act of the church, which may affect the honor of the
Great Head of the Church, of our church itself, or of our
pastor ;

Therefore, Resolved, That while as individuals, we have made
haste to express our sense of the deep personal obligation to Dr.
Hall, which we feel for his faithful teaching and exhortation, for
his ready sympathy in every time of joy and sorrow, and for his
tender ministrations in the dark hours of bereavement, we do
now desire, as an organization, to publicly express our love, our
confidence and our loyalty to Dr. Hall and respectfully but
most earnestly to request the church not to accept his proffered
resignation.

We therefore request that this paper be read at the meeting of
the church and congregation to be held on Wednesday, January
19th, 1898, in behalf of this Auxiliary.

(Signed) Catherine B. Weston, President.

Mary G. Janeway, Secretary.

Whereas, We, the members of the Young Women's Mis-
sionary Society of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, have
heard with deep regret of the resignation of our beloved pastor,
Rev. John Hall, D. D., LL. D.,

Whereas, We, as an organization, representing in our

322 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

membership nearly every family of the church, bound by
closest ties and deep devotion to both pastor and church, have
met together with a full sense of our responsibility, both personal
and as a society.

Whereas, We realize all Dr. Hall has been and is to each
one of us by his sympathy, his encouragement and his example,
that by his teaching and preaching he has inspired us with a
living interest in missions, and loving him wilh all our
hearts^

Resolved, That we hereby make public expressions of our
love and loyalty to Dr. Hall, That we respectfully and earnestly
request the church not to accept his resignation.

Maria Louisa Schieffelin, President.

Whereas, Our beloved pastor. Dr. John Hall, has handed
to the session of our church his resignation as pastor and the
session have called a meeting of the members of the church to
consider this resignation, and

Whereas, We, the members of the Young People's Associa-
tion of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, desire publicly
to express our love and devotion for Dr. Hall, and our deep
grief at learning of his resignation, and our complete confidence
in him as our spiritual guide, our pastor and our friend, and,
further, that it is not our wish that he resign as we appreciate
all that he has done for us as younger members of his congrega-
tion by counsel and by example and by his active interest in our
association as has been shown by his presence at nearly all our
religious meetings, and as we, or at least many of us, owe him
special affection on account of his ministrations in baptizing us
into the church and also in being the means of leading us to a
public acknowledgment of our faith in Jesus Christ,

Be it Resolved, That we respectfully request Dr. Hall to re-
consider his resignation, and we most earnestly hope that it will
not be accepted by the said meeting of the congregation.

Be it Resolved Further, That we request that this resolution

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 323

be read by the moderator at the meeting of the church and
congregation to be held on Wednesday, January 19th, 1S98, on
behalf of this Association.

William Sloane, President.
Elizabeth Ellen Anchincloss, Secretary.

Whereas, The Woman's Employment Society of the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church, have heard, with profoundest
sorrow, of the resignation of our beloved friend and pastor. Dr.
John Hall, whose philanthropic heart and kindly counsel made
our labors both lovely and successful.

Therefore be it resolved that we, in all sincerity, pray that
Dr. Hall may reconsider his determination to lay down the pas-
torate, which has so greatly blessed our city, and glorified God,
and that he may continue to guide us with his counsel and
" break unto us the bread of life."

We, Therefore, request that his resignation be not concurred
in and that any commissioners who may be appointed to go to
the presbytery be instructed to oppose the acceptance of his
resignation, and that this paper be read by the moderator at the
meetmg of the church and congregation to be held on January
nineteenth, 1898.

Fannie Ogden Dutcher, Secretary.

The only communication from my father was
a letter through the moderator saying:

My dear Brother :

Let me ask you, as the presiding officer of the evening,
to inform the congregation that I have agreed to the resolution
of the session that my resignation should not take effect until
next June. My earnest prayer is that God in His goodness
will direct such steps as will make for Christian harmony and
continued usefulness of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Yours fraternally

J. Hall.

324 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

To the committee my father made the follow-
ing communication:

My dear Friends:

On the 6th of January in presenting my resignation of
the pastorate of the congregation at a meeting of session I
offered to give up work at once, or to go on until a successor
should be found. One of a series of very kind resolutions of
the session vi'as that a meeting of the church and congregation
should be held on January igth to take action on the resigna-
tion, according to our form of government.

That meeting was held on January the 19th and it was duly
reported to me that the clerk of session was the secretary, that
several of the elders were present, and that there was no other
view presented than that — as you were appointed to inform me
— my resignation should not be accepted ; and no committee
was appointed to carry the matter to presbytery.

Believing that this meeting represented the feelings of the
church and congregation, and having had many most tender
appeals from members, and there having been no other course
suggested by the officers of the church, I announced from the
pulpit on the following Lord's day my willingness to continue
in service, so long as strength was given from above, and this
was done from an earnest desire to quiet anxiety on the subject
and continue the happy Christian unity of the congregation.
In Dr. Hodge's book on Presbyterian Law there is a statement
of what is to be done under such circumstances by the pastor
(section quoted). Let me add, dear friends, as representing
the congregation, that I mean to continue as active pastor, only
while the services are for the spiritual good of the congregation.
I am responsible to the Head of the Church for the best interests
of the members, whether rich or poor, and God helping me I
shall do the best I can for them. Considering the many years
of work graciously given me, that period cannot be very re-
mote, and my prayer is that the Divine Head of the Church
may direct to the harmonious choice of an " able minister " as

SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS 325

successor ; and in the meantime, if it seem fit, to a competent
assistant. I am, dear brethren in the good hope through grace,

Truly yours

John Hall.

The result, although foreseen by some, dis-
tressed my father beyond measure. The trustees
resigned in a body, and nine of the elders ten-
dered their resignations, saying they regarded the
step as forced upon them by the action of the
congregation.

Undoubtedly hard things had been said of the
session, and it was true that they undoubtedly
deeply misunderstood the mind of the congrega-
tion, and no longer represented it. A strong
body of trustees was at once elected to take the
place of those resigned, but delay was urged to
see if the session might not be reconstituted as
of old. This was found to be impossible, the
resignations were accepted and good men were
elected in their places. Some left the church, but
the enthusiasm called out by the struggle to re-
tain their beloved pastor far more than offset any
such losses.

The strain of a long interval since then without
a pastor has been splendidly withstood, and after
my father's death upon obtaining competent
leadership the work of the church was resumed

326 SUCCESSES AND SHADOWS

with full vigor, and perhaps with an increased
sense of congregational responsibility for the
success and condition of all the work in which
the church was engaged.

The scenes of affection, and the evidences of
devotion deeply touched my father.

He had however felt a shock that warned him
how deeply his life was bound up with his peo-
ple. A coarse insulting letter from a member of
his session utterly misrepresenting the course of
events was the only incident on which 1 ever
heard from him an indignant word. The mis-
representation of his motives, the coldness of
those whom he loved as his children, and the
shameful misrepresentations of the feelings of
the congregation had done their work. The
proud, shy, self-contained heart, schooled to self-
control, to passionate pity, and to tender con-
sideration for every one but itself, broke under
the strain. The shadow of the coming transla-
tion was already on the home.

XIII. THE LAST JOURNEY HOME

THE EVENTIDE

One loves to mark the setting sun,
Sink in the west, his day's work done,
With good to all — with harm to none.
In the quiet evening time !

One loves to mark the lessening light.
And mark the steps of coming night.
While home and life to him are bright
In the quiet evening time.

One loves in easy window chair
To breathe the cooler evening air.
And think of all things calm and fair,
In the quiet evening time.

One loves to think of rest at last,
To come at length, now coming fast,
When all life's toils and griefs are past
In the quiet evening time.

One loves to summon well-loved friends.
Whose memory with his heart-life blends.
From graves at earth's remotest ends
In the quiet evening time.

One loves to think how silent night,
Gives place at length to morning light.
When west and east will all be bright;
In the quiet evening time.

— J. Hall.
March sth, 1882.
Published in the New York Ledger.

328

XIII

THE LAST JOURNEY HOME

THE ILLNESS IN NEW YORK. ORDERED TO BUXTON. THE
INCREASING WEAKNESS. THE JOURNEY TO IRELAND. LAST
yiSlT TO 'RJJTLAND SQUARE. THE JOURNEY NORTH. HOME
LONGINGS. THE LAS T HOURS .

THE wonderful self-possession that marked
my father's life at any crisis, never left
him during the agitations and excitements of the
days of great strain in the beginning of 1898.
After the successful reorganization of the church,
and after the election of a strong body of trustees
had insured the pecuniary affairs, he took up
work with seeming vigor; the workers were
called together, the various branches of church-
life reviewed. The session that had resigned had
desired to close a mission church which my father
thought the congregation under a moral obligation
to maintain, the funds for keeping it up were at
once put into the new session's hands, and the offer
of the sale of the building was withdrawn. The
congregations increased, no doubt, in part through
the publicity given to the resignation and its with-
drawal.

329

330 THE LAST JOURNEY HOME

The outward composure was however paid for
by a heavy price. Naturally a man of peace,
dearly devoted to the interests of the congregation,
it had been a heavy blow to be dealt with so
roughly. Men of affairs, accustomed to battle
with not overscrupulous opponents; roughened
by life on the plane of the ethics of " the street,"
and accustomed to force their plans to an issue
without much consideration for others' feelings,
were not in a position to judge of what the dis-
turbance, and their desertion of my father cost
him. The crisis came when relative peace and
harmony had been restored by the withdrawal
from the counsels of the Church of all save one
or two of those not in sympathy with the pastor.
On March 25th my father was taken suddenly
with trouble of the poor weary heart. He
struggled manfully against the rapidly increasing
disablement. In May he presided at the com-
munion service, but speaking was too great a
risk, and although he conducted some funerals
and married a few couples, he had to forego
preaching, and in June was sent by the doctors
across the water to find the rest which now
alone promised any hope of recovery. The
present writer was in Europe and hurried at
once to England to meet the parents at Buxton

THE LAST JOURNEY HOME 331

whither the doctors had sent them. The change
wrought by that fatal winter was all too ap-
parent. The strong ceaseless worker was a
broken and tired-out patient. No complaints
were on his lips, but the pulse was irregular, and
the breathing often bad; what the doctors
ordered was gently and uncomplainingly taken,
in Buxton the strength seemed at least to hold
out, and having made arrangements to meet the
parents again the writer went back to the conti-
nent.

While at Buxton a great longing overcame my
father to visit once more the old home amid the
green fields of Ireland. He longed again to ex-
change greetings with the sisters whose love
never left him.

Unwilling to postpone his visit he telegraphed
me not to come back to Ireland, and that he and
my mother would make the journey alone. That
I knew to be out of the question and leaving
Austria I hurried as fast as possible up to the
north of England and arrived in time to catch
them still there. The change in the few weeks
was all too obvious. The springy step was the
slow pace of a worn-out man. Heart stimulant
had to be taken at intervals that seemed most
alarming. The journey to Ireland passed off

332 THE LAST JOURNEY HOME

fairly well, and fair weather favored the
travellers.

Great was my father's delight to find at Holy-
head Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton Magee his old col-
lege chum and his wife, lifelong devoted friends.
That little meeting was sweet and fragrant with
tender words of love and confidence, even as if
each knew that only in the everlasting peace
would they see each other again.

In Dublin a rest had to be taken. On Sabbath
morning we went together back to the old
familiar church on Rutland Square, where in
days now forever past crowds had hung on the
words of gentle comfort, strong warning and
glorious offers of eternal life. It was the last
public service he was ever to attend.

My father could scarcely bare the strain of
standing, and the kindly greetings of those who
came up to him awestruck and saddened by the
great change, greatly wearied him. One has
borne witness in print to the impression then
made.

"That Dr. Hall had been wounded, harassed,
humihated no one who saw the change these
last years made in him could doubt. With sad
hearts his friends saw him a broken man, and
this at the end of his long, faithful life. Perhaps

THE LAST JOURNEY HOME 333

it was all needed to loosen the strong ties of
earth. The storm made him welcome the haven.
Perhaps he needed to know more fully than he
had yet known 'the fellowship of His suffer-
ings.' Anyhow he has won his rest."

The old strong longing for the fields of the
quiet north of Ireland made itself felt, but the
physical condition made the journey impossible.
Monday he rested, and on Tuesday got up and
drove out for a little. That day our visit was
made to the old time friend of long ago; Mr.
Smith of the Vice Regal Lodge gardens was
sought out. He also was nearing the setting
sun, and waiting for the dayspring from on
high. In broken accents prayer was offered up,
and as we drove away through the once so
familiar fields of Phoenix Park old memories of
past friendships and bright hopes of future re-
unions stirred my father to an outburst of gentle
thankfulness for God's wonderful goodness
amid the calms as amidst the storms of his life.
The journey to Bangor was to have been broken
at Belfast, but my father's impatience to see his
sister would brook no delay, and we went on.
This journey tested all his strength, and with
difficulty he was gotten to bed in the home on
Crawfordsburn Road that was to be for him the

334 THE LAST JOURNEY HOME

portal to the Eternal City. He had hoped to
visit Ballygorman, the place of his childhood and
birth. This was no longer to be thought of, but
to satisfy him 1 left him for a night, and brought
back word from the old home, and warned the
sorrowing sisters of the serious character of the
illness.

Ceaselessly my mother tended with untiring
love the gentle uncomplaining invalid. For those
last days a Heavenly Father gave a most remark-
able strength and endurance to one, who had
herself been very near the gates. Towards even-
ing one day my father ventured a few steps
from the house to overlook the sea, on which the
evening sun was shining, tipping the wavelets
with a golden red. To him it seemed an image
of that everlasting beauty awaiting him in the
presence of his Saviour King.

Now and then he asked me if his voice was
weak. It was, alas, weak and husky, but this,
1 assured him was natural after so severe an ill-
ness. His sisters and old friends from Belfast
visited him, and he seemed cheered and helped
by these visits. Indeed in Dublin also faithful
friends greatly comforted him, and when at the
station a lifelong and dearly loved friend brought
her sister's little girls with fruit and flowers he

THE LAST JOURNEY HOME 335

was wonderfully brightened up and cheered by
it. Yet on the whole, weakness asserted itself
more and more. Less and less did the beating
heart respond to the remedies, and when on
Wednesday I returned from the old homestead
with news from Ballygorman, the physician in
charge had wisely telegraphed for assistance from
Belfast. But the specialist could do no more than
was being done. The diagnosis was muscular
degeneration of the heart, what is so pathetically
called in popular tongue "the sad heart" a con-
dition the doctor said — although knowing noth-
ing of the circumstances of my father's illness —
due to worry and anxiety. The doctors held out
no hope. From that on only watching and wait-
ing was our portion. There were intervals of
restlessness, and then apathy, then a ceaseless
struggle for breath marked the closing hours.

The last night we watched together, mother
and son, and when the morning broke, the sun
shining over the water and flooding the room
with splendid glory, the Saviour called the tired
messenger home to peace and rest and his ever-
lasting reward.

XIV. THE LAST RITES

"THERE REMAINETH THEREFORE A REST FOR
THE PEOPLE OF GOD"

Hebrews 4 : 9.

There is a home for the child of God

Whose sins have been all forgiven,
And the weary believer forgets his load

Of cares when he enters heaven —
O ye ! whose hearts are with griefs opprest
Rejoice for this world is not your rest.

There is a friend in that world above

And His love is deep and pure.
That friend is Christ, and His arm is strong.

And His mercy is ever sure.
Hear this O ye ! who love His name
He knows the weakness of your frame.

And there is a heart in that world above

With a love that is better than wine.
For oh I how tender and large that heart

And how filled with love divine !
O ye, whose comforts below are few,
That heart is Christ's and He cares for you.

And there are joys in that world above,

The highest, and purest and best, —
How sweet the news to a weary soul

Of a near, eternal rest !
Rejoice and be glad ! for to you it is given
To suffer and trust, but your rest is in heaven.

338

XIV

THE LAST RITES

THE FUNERAL IN IRELAND. THE REMAINS TAKEN TO NEW
YORK. SERyiCES IN NEIV YORK. TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY.
THE LAS T TiES TING -PLACE.

THE passage for my parents had been taken
on the Cunard Line for the 17th of Sep-
tember, but, of course, word had been duly sent
that illness would prevent their sailing. Arrange-
ments were therefore now made for taking the
dear remains the following week. The eldest
son had arrived half-an-hour after the closing
scene, having travelled in haste to Bangor. On
Sabbath afternoon simple services were held in
the home of the sister, Mrs. Magowan.

In that home my father had had peculiar pleas-
ure, as he aided in planning and building the
house. The Rev. Mr. I. McCauly, the pastor of
one of the Presbyterian churches in Bangor, most
kindly and sympathetically conducted simple
services, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Robert Patter-
son and the Rev. Mr. Crawford. The moderator
of the General Assembly most kindly desired
more public recognition in the way of a larger
339

340 THE LAST RITES

service, but the health of my mother, and the
dread of increasing a strain already great made
such a course impossible.

The funeral services in New York were on the
morning of October the 4th, 1898, in the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church into which so much
of my father's life had been built. Dr. John Mc-
intosh of Philadelphia, Dr. Wm. M. Paxton of
Princeton and the moderator of the General As-
sembly of that year, the Rev. Dr. Radcliffe took
charge of the services, and paid tributes to the
worth and services of him whom God had taken.
On Wednesday morning the remains were taken
to Woodlawn and laid to rest beside the beloved
nephew, the Rev. John Magowan, and near his
stepson Major John Irwin. The final arrange-
ments of the monument have not yet been made,
and only a simple head-stone with a reference to
Daniel 12:3, marks the place where lies the sacred
dust.

Great was the outburst of real sorrow when
the news spread that the great preacher and
faithful pastor was to be seen and heard no
more on earth. In London, Edinburgh, Dublin,
Belfast, Glasgow, as well as all the principal
cities of the United States, memorial sermons
were preached, and memorial services were held.

THE LAST RITES 341

Great numbers of ecclesiastical bodies on both
sides of the water, Methodists, Baptists, Congre-
gational, Episcopalian and others, joined in trib-
utes of esteem and sorrow. Nearly all the Eng-
lish written press on both sides of the Atlantic
and many foreign journals contained estimates
of the power and value of the life that had passed
away. The London Times paid a warm tribute
to the influence of the life that was closed; and
what marked nearly all these estimates was the
prominence given to the directness and simplic-
ity of the life and work. It was agreed that the
elements that went to make up my father's char-
acter were not unduly complex, yet poise, in-
dustry, strength of conviction and masterly con-
trol of all those elements gave extraordinary
force to the life.

The widow, three sons, a stepson and one
daughter survive the father; and were all so far
as health permitted present at the last sad offices.
For him to die was gain. A life singularly un-
selfish and remarkably unspoilt by unbroken suc-
cess went down at last amid the cloud-storms of
opposition and betrayal; but God gave sweet
peace, and gently took a faithful servant home to
join in the chorus of redemption in the presence
forever of his Saviour King.

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